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The Japanese ISAS MUSES-C mission, which is to be launched later this year, will take the names of a million people along with it to Asteroid 1998ML. The scheme is designed to encourage public interest in MUSES-C, the first sample and return mission to an asteroid, and is being organised by the Planetary Society of Japan and the Planetary Society. The names will be engraved in the aluminium foil surrounding the target marker which is to be released onto the asteroid. The initiative is entitled ''Let's fly to meet your star prince'' after the main character of Saint-Exupery's Little Prince who made his home on an asteroid. The MUSES-C mission will collect dust from the surface of Asteroid 1998ML using a novel technique. The spacecraft will fly low over the asteroid and a bullet will be fired into the surface to produce a cloud of dust particles. These will be collected by a horn-shaped tube on the bottom of the spacecraft. Asteroid 1998ML is about 400 m in diameter and its escape velocity is only 30 cm per second. Landing on the asteroid and digging up samples would therefore be too difficult. MUSES-C will encounter the asteroid in October 2003 and will return to the Earth with its cargo of dust in July 2006.
More info: The Planetary Society
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