"Local Tortoise Continues Pioneering Legacy" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story in my local paper titled "Local tortoise continues pioneering legacy."  It's sub-title read: "Rocky Brooks' name will be aboard NASA spacecraft heading on journey toward one of Jupiter's moons."  Rocky Brooks has postcards of Mars and Venus hanging on his walls.  The 10-year-old from nearby Ephrata, PA enjoys attending space-themed events.  Now his name will be aboard NASA's Europe Clipper when that spacecraft begins its journey to Jupiter's ocean moon.  Rocky is a Russian tortoise.  There's symbolism there!  In September 1968, the Soviet Union sent two Russian tortoises into space.  They orbited the Earth's moon, splashed down in the Indian Ocean and returned to Moscow just months before Apollo 8 carried three human U.S. astronauts into orbit around the moon.   "It was the Space Race, and the Russians attempted to beat us," said Dawn Brooks, Rocky's owner and volunteer board member at Ryan Observatory at Muddy Run in Holtwood.  "When they (the tortoises) came back, they had lost about 10% of their body weight.  But other than that, they were perfectly fine."  Brooks regularly tells that story when she takes Rocky to the observatory, which is run under contract with Constellation Energy.  Rocky was there on September 14 for "International Observe the Moon" night.  So was his official "Message in a Bottle" certificate from NASA.  It signifies that Rocky's name joins aboard Europe Clipper more than 2.6 million others from around the world, including 25,622 from Pennsylvania.  They were submitted for free by those seeking to have names stenciled in tiny letters on a dine-size microchip by an electron beam that made each line of text smaller than 1/100th the width of a human hair, according to NASA.  A 21-day launch window extends into early November and NASA said it will evaluate the situation once conditions have cleared.  Also secured to the spacecraft is a poem and waveforms of people saying "water" in over 100 spoken languages.  Previous space missions found evidence of a massive ocean flow of Europa's icy crust.  NASA scientist consider that moon one of the most promising places for habitable conditions.  The Europa Clipper's journey is expected to take five years.  The average life expectancy for a Russian tortoise in captivity is 40 to 60 years.  Rocky was a rescue, and Brooks is guessing his age.  But even if she's off by a couple decades, the tortoise will likely still be popping up at Muddy Run by the time the Europe Clipper begins fly-bys of a moon Galileo first spotted through a homemade telescope in 1610.  "Rocky's a great teaching point...," Brooks said. "He has quite a little following out there."  "We talk about animals in space a lot," Brooks told them.  "But not many  people know that the first creature that actually went into space, orbited the moon and came back in one piece, no less, would be your Russian tortoise."  Surprised reactions ensued.  "Rocky knows this and he would like to go to the moon, too," Brooks added.  "I've tried to talk to people about that."  For now, Brooks plans to embrace any name opportunities that present themselves on future NASA missions.  Rocky's moniker was already on a flash drive that circled Earth's moon during the 2022 Artimis I mission.  "I've promised to get his name out into space as much as I can for him," Brooks said.  "Until such a time as NASA calls me and says, 'We're ready.  Let's send tortoises back to the moon.' "  Best of luck from LDub on your journey! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.