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NASA's Curiosity Rover carries Obama's signature to Mars

The president tweeted out a pleased response to the moment of galactic glory.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper

President Barack Obama is about to leave office, but his imprint will forever reside on Mars.

On Thursday, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover's Twitter account sent out a photo of a plaque bearing the signatures of President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other US officials. The rectangular aluminum plaque is affixed to the rover's deck, and also bears NASA's logo.

The photo was taken back on September 19, 2012, the rover's 44th Martian day, by the Mars Hand Lens Imager.

Similar plaques are on the lander platforms for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, NASA noted in a statement on its site.

The president tweeted his reaction to the plaque, and got in a spacey joke in the process.