The Send Your Name to Mars Campaign attracted 11 million respondents from around the world. Their names were stencilled by electronic beam onto 15 millimetre-sized silicon chips, along with 155 finalists’ essays from the Name the Rover contest. The chips were then attached to a metal plate becoming part of the actual space vehicle. Fagg has been fascinated with the universe and beyond since he was a child and can’t wait to see the landing. His enthusiasm for the project is because it is the first purpose built, car size, rover to look for ancient microbial signs of life and take samples from the surface, which will be brought back to earth through a future project, he said.