12/16/2023 0 Comments Nasa mars rover contestThe soon-to-be-renamed Mars 2020 rover will launch in July or August 2020. 18, 2020 - exactly one year before the rover will land on Mars.Įvery rover on Mars has been named by a student - starting with the suitcase-size Sojourner rover that landed in 1997. The grand prize winner will be announced on Feb. The nine finalists will be interviewed by an expert panel including Ma. If you're a K-12 student and want to propose a name for the rover that launches in 2020, visit: How does the Mars 2020 naming contest work? Winning the naming contest also gave her the confidence to tackle broad questions and reach beyond the world she knew. I realized that studying the Earth was the most important thing I could do." And yet we're still the only place that we know of where life exists. There are trillions and trillions of planets out there. "Thinking about sending a robot to another planet made me realize how special and fragile life is on Earth," she said. She is completing a master's degree in science, technology and environmental policy at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. Her coursework and research focused in particular on how Earth's atmosphere, oceans and climate interact with one another. Ma graduated earlier this year with a degree in geophysics from Yale University. "It made me realize that was something I could do with my life: I could be a scientist, too." "It was so inspiring to meet people who were asking questions about the world and the universe for a living," she said. One key part of the experience was getting to speak with so many NASA scientists and engineers of different backgrounds several of them became longtime mentors. "The experience of naming the rover and everything that came with it changed my life," Ma said recently. She won the contest the rover Curiosity launched in 2011 and is hard at work today looking into whether ancient Mars ever had the right environmental conditions to support life. "We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder." When Ma read a magazine article about NASA's essay contest to name the next Mars rover, she knew precisely which name to propose: "Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives," Ma wrote in her short essay. As she looked up at the night sky above Lenexa, Kansas, her head practically exploded thinking about the mysteries of the cosmos. She had recently entered her first science fair and watched a movie about a journey from Earth to the far reaches of the universe. In 2008, Ma was a 12-year-old sixth grader in a Kansas City suburb and was just starting to develop an interest in science. My life would not be the same if I hadn't spoken up to articulate my thoughts." But after winning the naming contest, there was a lot of attention on me - unlike anything I'd ever known. "I was really, really shy as a kid," Ma explained. Just think about what it means to have something you named conducting history-making science on the Red Planet - or, if you are one of nine finalists, getting to meet people who have spent their lives unraveling the mysteries of the specks of light in our night sky.įor Clara Ma, who won the naming contest for Curiosity, the NASA rover currently exploring the Red Planet, the experience rocked her world. 1 to propose their name for the rover to be launched to Mars in 2020. students in kindergarten through 12th grade, attending public, private or home schools, have only through Nov. Don't miss the out-of-this-world opportunity to name NASA's next Mars rover: U.S.
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