Naming the New MARS Rover

NASA has let school students name all of its Mars rovers to date.

NASA’s first-ever wheeled red planet explorer (deployed on Mars in July 1997) was named Sojourner. Sojourner was named by Connecticut 12-year-old Valerie Ambroise in honor of activist Sojourner Truth. Sofi Collis, a third grader from Arizona, won the competition to name Spirit and Opportunity, twin NASA rovers that landed on Mars in January 2004. Curiosity, the rover which has been busy exploring the Red Planet’s Gale Crater since August 2012, was named by Kansas sixth grader Clara Ma.

NASA encouraged the public to vote for their favorite, but the decision ultimately was made by NASA. Alex Mather of Virginia was the student whose submission, Perseverance, was chosen as the official name of the newest Mars rover.

In this illustration, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover uses its drill to core a rock sample on Mars. Image: NASA

This huge initial pool was culled to 155 semifinalists, which were whittled further to nine finalists this past January. Those nine included three proposals from each of the three age categories (grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12). The finalist monikers, and the kids who proposed them, were:
• Endurance, K-4, Oliver Jacobs, Virgina.
• Tenacity, K-4, Eamon Reilly, Pennsylvania.
• Promise, K-4, Amira Shanshiry, Massachusetts.
• Perseverance, 5-8, Alexander Mather, Virginia.
• Vision, 5-8, Hadley Green, Mississippi.
• Clarity, 5-8, Nora Benitez, California.
• Ingenuity, 9-12, Vaneeza Rupani, Alabama.
• Fortitude, 9-12, Anthony Yoon, Oklahoma.
• Courage, 9-12, Tori Gray, Louisiana.

Alex Mather reads his essay entry, Thursday, March 5, 2020, at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Va.(Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via AP)

Perseverance will use the same sky-crane descent and landing system as Curiosity.
The link between the missions is deep. The rover will continue to look for signs of life, but Perseverance will also collect and cache dozens of samples of Mars material for future return to Earth as early as 2031, where scientists with advanced equipment in labs around the world will study them.

Alexander Mather, a seventh grader at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, will get a trip to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to watch Perseverance launch in July.

NASA’s Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen talked about the ties between the two missions and stressed that their names go together well, too.

“Perseverance and curiosity together are what exploration is all about,” Zubuchen said. “There has never been exploration — never, never been making history — without perseverance.”

“Perseverance is a strong word,” he added. “It’s about making progress despite obstacles.”

Source: NASA