NASA has chosen nine finalists in the student naming contest for its next Mars rover, which currently goes by the bland Mars 2020 (a reference to its launch window, which extends from July through August of this year).
Engineers have tested the robot’s wheels and tried out its cameras. All it needs now is a name.
The rover, which is temporarily dubbed Mars 2020, is scheduled to launch on July 17 and land on Mars’s Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. It will search for signs of past microbial life on the red planet and collect samples for a future mission that could return them to Earth.
In its “Name the Rover” essay contest, NASA invited students in kindergarten through 12th grade to propose names for the robot. That’s also how the last Mars rover, Curiosity, got its name.
After the contest began in August 2019, NASA received over 28,000 essays. Thousands of volunteer judges helped narrow the pool down to 155 semifinalists. On Tuesday, NASA announced the nine finalists.
NASA kicked off the “Name the Rover” essay contest last August, and more than 28,000 name suggestions and accompanying essays were received from students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It took weeks for the judges to narrow down the field, first to 155 semifinalists, and then to the nine finalists — three for grades K-4, three for grades 5-8, and three for grades 9-12.
The K-4 suggestions are Endurance (from Virginia’s Oliver Jacobs), Tenacity (from Pennsylvania’s Eamon Reilly) and Promise (from Massachusetts’ Amira Shanshiry). In the 5-8 category, the names are Perseverance (from Virginia’s Alexander Mather), Vision (from Mississippi’s Hadley Green) and Clarity (from California’s Nora Benitez). In the 9-12 category, you can pick between Ingenuity (from Alabama’s Vaneeza Rupani), Fortitude (from Oklahoma’s Anthony Yoon) and Courage (from Louisiana’s Tori Gray).
The online voting booth is open until 9 p.m. PT Jan. 27. Poll results will be considered, along with other factors, and the winning name will be announced in early March. The student whose name is selected will receive an invitation to watch this summer’s launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.