An illustration depicting NASA’s next Mars rover, which launches in 2020. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars 2020: NASA to announce name of new rover – Watch it live here
The name of NASA’s next Mars rover, currently known as Mars 2020, will be unveiled during a live event on NASA Television. Here’s what you need to know.
An illustration depicting NASA’s next Mars rover, which launches in 2020. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Back in 2019, NASA announced a naming contest for the Mars 2020 rover project and received more than 28 000 essays from K-12 students in the USA.
NASA also said in a statement that nearly 4 700 volunteer judges – including educators, professionals and space enthusiasts – helped narrow the submissions down to 155 semifinalists.
A second round of judging selected the nine finalist essays that were open to an online public poll before Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, made the final selection.
When will NASA announce the new Mars rover’s name?
The event will take place on Thursday, 5 March 2020 at 13:30 Eastern Standard Time, or 20:30 South Africa Standard Time (SAST). NASA will stream it via its the Television streaming service.
In addition to the NASA TV stream on YouTube, the live event can also be viewed on Facebook, Ustream, Twitter, and the agency’s website.
The live event will include appearances by Thomas Zurbuchen, as well as Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters.
Deanne Bell, founder and CEO of Future Engineers in Burbank, California, and the student who submitted the winning name and entry will also be in attendance.
The public is invited to submit questions via social media by using the hashtag #AskNASA.
Watch: NASA reveals new Mars rover name
What is the Mars 2020 project?
The new albeit nameless rover is part of a “larger exploration program that includes missions to the Moon to prepare for human missions to the Red Planet”, NASA said on its official website.
According to NASA, the Mars 2020 rover is currently at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States, where it is being prepared for launch later this year in August 2020.
The rover is a robotic scientist weighing more than 1 000 kilograms which will search for signs of past microbial life and assist in characterising the planet’s climate and geology by collecting samples.
“This rover is the first leg of a round-trip mission to Mars that will advance understanding in key science fields like astrobiology”.
Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division
Once launched, the Mars rover will also ravel to the Jezero Crater, which is thought to have been covered by a lake about the same size as Lake Tahoe in the distant past. If all goes according to plan, the rover will land on Mars on 18 February 2021.
The naming-contest finalists
- Oliver Jacobs of Virginia suggested Endurance
- Eamon Reilly of Pennsylvania suggested Tenacity
- Amira Shanshiry of Massachusetts suggested Promise
- Alexander Mather of Virginia suggested Perseverance
- Hadley Green of Mississippi suggested Vision
- Nora Benitez of California suggested Clarity
- Vaneeza Rupani of Alabama suggested Ingenuity
- Anthony Yoon of Oklahoma suggested Fortitude
- Tori Gray of Louisiana suggested Courage
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