430,000 names are hurtling towards Pluto right now
Do you remember what you were doing on the internet back in 2005? No, of course you don't--modern smartphones didn't exist yet, YouTube was just starting out and Facebook was still just an "online college yearbook." You might have stumbled upon a NASA webpage looking for folks to be a part of the "first mission to the last planet." Participants had their name burned onto a CD and launched into space with the New Horizons spacecraft. Can't remember if your moniker is among the stars? There's an easy way to find out.
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has a name search page hidden in its communications pages. It's function is simple: find out if your name is among one of 430,000 on their way to Pluto. If it is, NASA will award you with a numbered Participation Certificate, certifying that yes, your name is indeed copied onto a piece of outdated technology that's literally taped to the side of a real spacecraft. Congratulations.
Didn't manage to submit your name to NASA ten years ago? Don't worry--you can fake it with some simple HTML edits, like me. Nobody has to know.
