Send Your Name into Space on NASA's Glory Satellite

There seems to be a built-in human need to leave our mark on something. Maybe it has something to do with the impermanence of life, I don't know. Most people want something besides their name on a grave marker that will last for many years down the road. Or, conversely they want an experience that they can relate to while they are still alive, the knowledge that they've done something or accomplished something that made their life interesting and worthwhile. Wild animals mark their territory by rubbing their glands on trees or urinating. We leave our flag on the tops of mountains and even on the moon. Sometimes we even scratch our name on the restroom wall or spray it all over a public building. We buy gifts of jewelry for our significant others to mark them. We build statues of our famous (and infamous) people or build monuments. We even carve the names of our fallen soldiers into granite walls and weep before them.

There's the old adage that if you ask a mountain climber why he climbs a difficult peak, he'll tell you "because it's there." But he will always leave some evidence behind that he was there, otherwise what's the point? Rich art collectors pay obscene amounts of money for a rare piece of art or history, not so much because they are fascinated by its artistic quality or intrinsic value, but rather because they can then feel that it sets them apart from everyone else. Funny how we all want to be like everyone else and want everyone to be just like us, but still have to have something to set us apart.