Agency officials said the test is the first step of an effort to determine whether the technology can be used in any future manned mission to Mars.

Fred Schramm, administrator for the internal research and development program at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said a variety of paper and plastic RFID tags will be on board the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour, which is slated to launch in July on a voyage to the International Space Station.

The Gen 2 passive RFID chips will be stored in a case attached to the outside of the station and left there for about a year to determine how they are affected by atmospheric conditions, he said. In the test, the chips will be exposed to extreme heat and cold, ultraviolet radiation and the vacuum conditions that exist in low orbit, Schramm said.

After the test, NASA will determine whether the weight of RFID chips used in the experiment could cause problems in a space mission, whether the atmospheric conditions will degrade tags so they can't be used, and what materials, such as silicon or copper, work best in space, he said.

If those tests are successful, Schramm said, the technology will be further evaluated on a pre-Moon-launch rocket test that is slated to launch in about 27 months. 'Most things that will work with the moon will work with Mars, and we're working with the moon in mind,' he noted.