NASA is adding Twitter and Instagram posts to its new time capsule

When it comes to time capsules, they can prove to be worth exploring, especially when you take into consideration how time passes us by so quickly, it is nice to have something physical from the past to refer to many decades down the road. NASA intends to enlist public participation in their upcoming Asteroid Time Capsule, where you can send your tweets to space as well as share your Instagram photos for future generations to see what you have been up to in the past.

NASA is asking the public to submit messages and images shared via social media for a time capsule that it will launch in 2016 alongside a scientific mission to the asteroid Bennu. The capsule is scheduled to return to Earth in 2023 with a sample of the 1,760-foot-wide asteroid. The space agency will select 50 tweets and 50 images from the submissions it receives between September 2 and September 30. The entries should be space-themed, focusing on solar system exploration in 2014 and predictions for 2023. Use the hashtag #AsteroidMission on Twitter or Instagram to submit an idea. The capsule will ride aboard the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), which is expected to make contact with Bennu in 2019 and spend two years on its surface. The mission is focused on understanding the composition of the early solar system, and as such, the capsule will return with two ounces of materials for further study. When it returns to Earth in 2023, the capsule will be opened and the selected submissions will be posted online.