Write Your Valentine On a Spacecraft

GingerSnaps writes "Looking for something more fun and less predictable than roses and chocolates this Valentine's Day? Write your love on the side of a satellite. This unusual approach to courting comes courtesy of students at MIT and Georgia Tech, as part of a larger initiative to pay for their research spacecraft, the Mars Gravity Biosatellite. For a tax-deductible donation anyone can post a picture or message of choice on the spacecraft. All donations help the students pay for the development and construction of their Earth-orbiting satellite, to be launched in 2010. The data gathered will be critical to preparing for human missions to Mars and beyond."

Ah, romance

[The Zon]

Nothing says "I love you" like etching your girlfriend's name onto a cold metal construct and shooting it into the black oblivion of space.

Re:

[gardyloo]

That's why I only go out with girls with names like NASA and Martin-Marietta.

Re:Ah, romance

[Max Littlemore]

"Which is more romantic? a) Carving your name on a tree; or b) Writing your name on the side of a spaceship?"

Ummm.. I think you forgot "c) Writing her name on a tree."
Oh wait.... this is ./
never mind....

Re:Ah, romance

[c_forq]

Oh wait.... this is ./

I see this all the time, but I still don't get how people would ever forget they're on slashdot. I mean if they look around they are either at work or in the basement, either way there is at least one window with at least one tab opened to slashdot. I guess it is possible someone might wander to other sites on the internet, but if they do that than what is next - wandering out of the basement!?!?

Re:

[kfg]

. . .if they look around they are either at work or in the basement

Would you believe both?

. . .if they do that than what is next - wandering out of the basement!?!?

Dude, I just wandered back in. Why didn't someone tell me there were people out there? I had to like fucking interact and shit. I only managed to survive because I was in the woods most of the time.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go make a vlog about "community" and beg people to subscribe to it, despite the fact that I'm obviously just a cam

But you can cut a tree down!

[EmbeddedJanitor]

So if your relationship goes tits up, you can always convert the tree into firewood.

This satellite think is even worse than getting a tattoo! At least you can erase a tattoo or if you're lucky you can change "Bob loves Ann" into "Bob loves Angela", but it's going to be pretty difficult to go to space and make the modifications.

Re:

[cavac]

Actually, getting that tattoo erased is the harder thing (or at least much more painfull).

Just build your own railgun, see , or and shoot that fraking thing off the sky. Or, just let your local guv'ment deal with that new "spy-sat"...

Re:Ah, romance

[Max Littlemore]

It definitely shows you're more caring than if you gave flowers. Especially if she's one of those ultra sensitive types who think plants have feelings.

I know if I were a flowering plant, I'd be all like "Go with the spaceship idea, it's gold! Seriously, she'll love it! No!! Put the secateurs away. No, not that! AAAAARRRRGH!!!!! Aaaawww, did you have to hang a card from it?

Re:Ah, romance

[Max Littlemore]

Except in one case you're scribbling on steel, in the other case YOU'RE TEARING THE SEXUAL ORGANS OFF A LIVING THING AND GIVING THEM AS A GIFT!!!

-Imagine if the tables were turned-

Cabbage 1: Happy Valentines Day darling!

Cabbage 2: Oh Raoul, this human penis smells delightful!

...with sincerest apologies to anyone for whom Valentines Day is now ruined...

Further ruining...

[DrYak]

...with sincerest apologies to anyone for whom Valentines Day is now ruined...

Must... resist.... temptation.... ...ruining further...

Yeah, and insects' pollination is the plant equivalent of a blow-/hand- job !!!
 
...too late !

Re:

[Joebert]

I've met a few women who would be happier with a dozen severed penises.

Re:

[Max Littlemore]

No you haven't. You've met wimmin who would be happier with severed penisis. If you have a penis and call them 'women' with that spelling, you may not have one for long.

Hey, I'd mod you up if I had the points...

Re:

[Joebert]

If you have a penis and call them 'women' with that spelling, you may not have one for long.

Oh well fuck her, she wasn't "in touch with my feelings" anyway.

Re:

[e4g4]

Hell - it's a lot easier than flowers - you walk in empty handed and say, "Hey honey, I got you a Valentine's gift." When the inevitable question arises as to the whereabouts of said gift - "Oh, sorry, yeah, it's on its way to Mars."

She'll have a hard time proving you wrong :-P

Re:Ah, "wish you were here"

[mnemotronic]

Gee, now that my marriage is going down the tubes, what can I say that will express what I'm truely feeling for my soon-to-be-ex? What heartfelt emotion can I enscribe on the side of a chunk of metal headed for deep space that conveys how I feel? What trite, candy-heart message would I use?

• Wish you were here.
• Be someone else's.
• Never did love you.
• If you can read this, I'm happy.
• You got my cars, my house, my bank accounts, my 401k, and my cat. But I got a crayon.
• The sex was really bad.
• Be my hero. Kill your lawyer.
• h8u2

Re:

[syousef]

Nothing says "I love you" like etching your girlfriend's name onto a cold metal construct and shooting it into the black oblivion of space. ...especially if you use her credit card to pay for it.

Re:

[CommunistHamster]

What's so unromantic about sticking your name onto a "payload" and "shooting" it into space on a "rocket"?

My Valentine....

[Anonymous Coward]

Exploded...

My Message

[Anonymous Coward]

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Poetic...

[Anonymous Coward]

My love for thee burns like the flames of re-entry

Re:Poetic...

[gardyloo]

...or it might just be herpes.

Re:

[DarkTempes]

I wish I had mod points =(

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, so does the VD.

you forgot the end part

[President_Camacho]

My love for thee burns like the flames of re-entry

...of Space Shuttle Columbia.

Cost is

[chanrobi]

http://www.yournameintospace.org/step2_individuals .php [yournameintospace.org] For invdividuals anyways.

Obligatory Joke

[OctoberSky]

The people who are willing to give their girlfriends the "gift" of writing their names on the sides of spacecraft..... aren't usually the type of people that have girlfriends.

Re:Obligatory Joke

[GFree]

No matter. You'll just end up with a satellite full of "I Luv Linux!" and ponies on the side.

Re:Obligatory Joke

[gardyloo]

OMG --- PONIES!!!!

Re:

[MoreDruid]

I'm with stupid -->

Re:

[Eevee]

Are they iPonies or ZunePonies?

Re:Obligatory Joke

[Atomic6]

That was a perfect opportunity to make a reference to Virgin Galactic if I ever saw one.

Re:

[antifoidulus]

My right hand slaves all year for me and doesn't get anything in return. I think this would be a fantastic gift to show righty how much I care!

Sponsored Satellites

[Edis Krad]

All of the sudden I imagined a satellite, polluted with advertising, very much like a NASCAR race car.

Now if only there was someone up there to read those advertisements, we would have reached Mars a long time ago.

Who are we sending up in it?

[CrazyJim1]

Mike or Joel?

At Least From the /. Contingency...

[Miseph]

The number one most popular message: "i 3 righty"

Number two: "fsck me tubgirl"

Re:

[Miseph]

D'oh, I forgot to preview.

should read "i :heart: righty"

Hadn't realized that the open bracket symbol would vanish even in plain old text.

Re:

[mrchaotica]

&lt; == "<"

HTML entities -- learn them, love them, use them.

Re:

[Miseph]

I probably should, but I'm lazy.

Meh.

Re:

[Joebert]

I <3 righty

Broke my heart too.

Greetings!

[tktk]

And I, for one, welcome our new [insert description] overlords.

On? Oh, not 'From'...

[WobindWonderdog]

Meh misread the title of the article... "To my one and only love. For Valentines, I've decided to get as far as humanly possible from you..."

In Japan...

[okinawa_hdr]

....women buy the men chocolate for Valentine's Day. True story. Just thought I'd throw that out there for all you males across the world dishing out lots of cash on chocolates, roses, and names on the side of space craft!

Re:

[Edis Krad]

True. But men have to return the favor a month later on White Day, March 14th ;)

Re:

[wellingj]

So close to the ides of march.....

Yep, got a box today...

[patio11]

... unfortunately, from the married 40 year old, not the cute single 24 year old ("giri choco" = chocolate given out of social obligation, not from an expression of personal interest). I'm now socially obligated to get her something white about a month from now.

Re:In Japan...

[gardyloo]

True. But those women are also all pixelated where it counts. That just doesn't do it for me.

spacecraft?

[Triv]

I guess I could be wrong, but doesn't 'spacecraft' carry the connotation that the vehicle carries a human cargo, or at least is piloted by one?

Triv

Re:

[Fred_A]

What is it called if there's only logic boards inside it then ? Space projectile ?

Serious Comments Go Here

[iamlucky13]

Wow. I just scanned the entire page (at +1, I admit), and it appears this is the closest thing to serious comment in the entire discussion, except perhaps for the irrelevant mention of space junk a few threads down.

I just wanted to comment on what an ambitious student project this is. Typically when schools do space-related projects, it's a tiny cubesat [wikipedia.org], a single component or experiment on a larger spacecraft, or assisting a NASA project, like interning at Jet Propulsion Lab. It sounds like the students

Right.

[DancesWithBlowTorch]

"The data gathered will be critical to preparing for human missions to Mars and beyond."

So the success of America's historic step towards the planets rests on the shoulders of a bunch of MIT undergrads? I didn't know it was that bad.

My Bad...

[jomama717]

Write my love on the side of a satellite...anyone have a kleenex?

Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

Whats Valentine ? I've been on Slashdot for 5 years and I've never heard about it. Does it run Linux ?

Re:

[Joebert]

Remember the I love you virus ?
It's like that, but more people fall for it.

IAMAMM

[iamacat]

And I assure you that a girl would like a dozen of long stem roses way more than a message on the side of a spacecraft

Re:

[DerekLyons]

Depends on the kind of girl. My wife would appreciate both.

Graffiti

[hack slash]

It doesn't matter how original a message or image someone comes up with to be inscribed on the craft, Banksy will probably tag it after launch.

junk

[zanderredux]

Great, more junk orbiting Earth.

That's all we need now.

It's a trap!

[jacobw]

You fools! Don't you see what's happening?

1. The MIT team is raising money for a satellite that will go to Mars [marsgravity.org].

2. They are getting people to give them the names of their Valentine's to put on the side of another satellite.

3. People who would pay for something like this are geeks; geeks are mostly males; and most males are attracted to women.

4. Ergo, a team of scientists with STRONG MARTIAN CONNECTIONS is collecting the names of hundreds--maybe even thousands--of EARTH WOMEN.

That's right-- MIT IS HELPING MARTIANS STEAL EARTH WOMEN!

(Don't believe me? Here's photographic proof [bmoviecentral.com].

Re:

[Joebert]

It's the martians, they're in it with the gays, they're building landing strips for gay martians, I swear to god !

Was that you ?

Finally, a way for the slashdot crowd to...

[niceone]

Finally, a way for the slashdot crowd to display their love, that isn't banned by their restraining orders.

this would be perfect....

[Frequently_Asked_Ans]

if i had a girlfriend.......ah well

Valentine on a Spacecraft

[Mikkelin]

Where is Ender?

Oh dear

[Fist! Of! Death!]

I for one do not think my beloved would like her name to be forever etched into something with "Mars Gravity" in its name. Maybe its just me, but I reckon she might take it as an insult.

The picture of your choice?

[6Yankee]

How about a solid square of colour? If we co-ordinated our efforts, we could cover the thing in goatse-pixels.

Valentine? On Slashdot?

[ettlz]

Is it 1st April or something?

No big deal

[PingXao]

For free I was able to have my signature orbiting Saturn [planetary.org]. It's been there awhile, too. This pipsqueak private satellite has a 100-1 shot of even making it to Mars orbit.

And Valentine's Day? Let's just say my hotties call me Titan.

Re:

[Rob T Firefly]

You brag now, but it's only a matter of time until the Saturnians figure out credit card fraud.

Valentine's Day's coming?

[rocktonne]

Aw crap! I forgot to get a girlfriend again!

The Honeymooners

[ab0mb88]

Bang, zoom, straight to the moon!

I know what I would put on it...

[MentlFlos]

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Re:

[Acuram]

I think it would be cool if that had a lot of $$$ around bought a huge chunk and put RED DWARF

My Valentine

[dasunst3r]

Skyrockets in flight... afternoon delight!

Misread

[mpoloks]

"Wire your love on the side of a satellite. This unusual approach..."

Blonde

[Joebert]

Mine's blonde.
Thanks guys, you just saved me $35 !

To Major Tom

[denidoom]

Honey, it's time to come home now. Love, Your Wife

Obligatory Valentine's Day (VD) jokes

[SonicSpike]

- Did you ever notice that "Valentine's Day" and "venereal disease" both start with the same two letters?

- We're both white trash, bred by the dozen, and now its time to do my cousin!

- Roses are red, politicians are sleazy, will you be mine? I hear you're easy

- Roses are red, violets are blue, I've got herpes, and now so do you!

- As Elton John says on Valentine's Day "It's better to have a rose on your piano than a tulip on your organ!"