Mars rover 2020 naming contest: 9 names shortlisted, winning name to come out in March – India Today, Indiatoday.in

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) will launch its next Mars rover in 202001 and the process to choose a name for it is already underway.

Nine names have been finalized to choose from. The names of the Mars rover are the finalists chosen in Nasa’s Mars 202001 Rover Naming Contest.

The public or the people now have an opportunity to vote for their favorite name for Nasa’s next Mars rover.

Members of the public have an opportunity to vote for their favorite name for Nasa’s next Mars rover. The nine candidate names were made possible by the “Name the Rover” essay contest, which invited students in kindergarten through Grade from from the United States to come up with a fitting name for Nasa’s Mars 202001 rover and write a short essay about it.

More than , (essays were submitted after the contest began on August , 2019. A diverse panel of nearly 4, judge volunteers, composed of educators, professionals and space enthusiasts from all around the country, narrowed the pool down to 208 deserving semifinalists from every state and territory in the country, Nasa wrote on its website.

“Thousands of students have shared their ideas for a name that will do our rover and the team proud, “ Lori Glaze, director of Nasa’s Planetary Science Division in Washington, said.

” Thousands more volunteered time to be part of the judging process. Now it is the public’s opportunity to become involved and express their excitement for their favorites of the final nine, “ Lori Glaze added.

THE NINE FINALISTS (SUBMISSION NAME, GRADE LEVEL, STUDENT NAME AND STATE) ARE:

(Endurance, K-4, Oliver Jacobs of Virginia
Tenacity, K-4, Eamon Reilly of Pennsylvania
Promise, K-4, Amira Shanshiry of Massachusetts
Perseverance, 5- 8, Alexander Mather of Virginia
, Vision, 5-8, Hadley Green of Mississippi
Clarity, 5-8, Nora Benitez of California
Ingenuity, 9 – , Vaneeza Rupani of Alabama
Fortitude, 9 – 11, Anthony Yoon of Oklahoma
Courage, 9 – , Tori Gray of Louisiana

The poll, to zero down on a name for the new Mars rover, will remain open through January 27. The results of the poll will be a consideration in the final naming selection. The contest will conclude in early March, when the rover’s new name – and the student behind it – are announced, Nasa said.

The grand prize winner will also receive an invitation to see the spacecraft launch in July, 202001 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, US.

The Mars 2020 rover is based on the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover configuration | Photo from mars.nasa.gov

MARS ROVER

The currently unnamed rover is a robotic scientist weighing more than 1, 06 kg. It will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet’s climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.

Scheduled to launch in July or August 2020, the new Mars rover will land in Jezero Crater on February ,