The Going to Mars campaign allowed members of the general public to participate in the mission and “go to Mars” with the MAVEN spacecraft in 2013.

The campaign had three parts; a bumper sticker art contest for students 5 to 17 years old, a “message to Mars” haiku contest for all ages, and a name entry form. Art and haiku contest entries were voted on by the public to determine winners.

All 377 art entries, haiku entries that received at least 2 votes (1,073 out of 12,530 total entries), and 96,899 valid names submitted to the site were written to an archival M-disc DVD and attached to the spacecraft. The winning art entry was used as a label for the DVD.

“The contest has resonated with people in ways that I never imagined,” MAVEN Education and Public Outreach leader Stephanie Renfrow said, according to a University of Colorado Boulder news release. “Both new and accomplished poets wrote poetry to reflect their views of Earth and Mars, to share their feelings about space exploration, to pay tribute to loved ones who have passed on and to make us laugh with their words.”

Top five Haiku by public vote:

It’s funny, they named

Mars after the God of War

Have a look at Earth

Benedict Smith, United Kingdom

Thirty-six million

miles of whispering welcome.

Mars, you called us home.

Vanna Bonta, USA

Stars in the blue sky

cheerfully observe the Earth

while we long for them

Luisa Santoro, Italy

distant red planet

the dreams of earth beings flow

we will someday roam

Greg Pruett, USA

Mars, your secret is

unknown for humanity

we want to know you.

Fanni Redenczki, Hungary