A 40-year-old NASA tradition of sending presidential plaques on planetary missions continues with the inscription of the signatures of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other administration and NASA officials on a metal plate on board Curiosity.

The metal plate with President Obama's signature which is located on the rover's deck is only one of the signature collections. Others include the autograph of the 14-year-old girl from Kansan who gave Curiosity its name, together with millions of digital signatures from the public who signed up through NASA.

The girl who won NASA's essay contest to give the new Mars rover its name is Clara Ma, who was then 12 years old. As part of her prize, she was invited to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where she signed her name on the rover. The panel she signed was later installed on Curiosity's base.

The tradition started in the 1960s when Richard Nixon signed a presidential plaque which was attached to the Apollo spacecraft that landed on the moon.

Aside from President Obama and Vice President Biden, Curiosity's presidential plaque which was created 10 months ago, also includes the signatures of the president's science advisor John Holdren and NASA administrator and deputy administrator Charles Bolden and Lori Garver.

Others signatures are NASA's Mars program leaders including Doug McCuistion, program director; Michael Meyer, lead scientist; and Dave Lavery, program executive for the Mars Science Laboratory. The signature of Ed Weiler, the space agency's associate administrator for science at the time when the plaque was created, is also included.