NASA's next
rover, the Mars Science Laboratory, finally has its new name: Curiosity.
The name
comes courtesy of Clara Ma, a 12-year-old sixth-grade student at Sunflower Elementary school in Lenexa, Kan.
"We
have been eager to call the
rover by name," said Pete Theisinger, who manages the JPL team
building and testing Curiosity. "Giving it a name worthy of this mission's
quest means a lot to the people working on it."
The rover
is expected to launch
in 2011.
A NASA
panel selected the name following a nationwide student contest that attracted
more than 9,000 proposals via the Internet and mail. Name suggestions from the
Mars Science Laboratory project leaders and a non-binding public poll also were
considered.
"Students
from every state suggested names for this rover. That's testimony to the excitement
Mars missions spark in our next generation of explorers," said Mark Dahl,
the mission's program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Many
of the nominating essays were excellent and several of the names would have fit
well. I am especially pleased with the choice, which recognizes something
universally human and essential to science."
Ma decided
to enter the rover-naming contest after she heard about it at her school.
"I was
really interested in space, but I thought space was something I could only read
about in books and look at during the night from so far away," Ma said.
"I thought that I would never be able to get close to it, so for me,
naming the Mars rover would at least be one step closer."
"Curiosity
is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind. It makes me get out of
bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that
day," Ma wrote in her winning essay. "Curiosity is such a powerful
force. Without it, we wouldn't be who we are today. Curiosity is the passion
that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and
scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder."
As her
prize, Ma wins a trip to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., where she will be invited to sign her name directly onto the rover as it
is being assembled.
Walt Disney
Studios Motion Pictures supplied the prizes for the contest, including 30 for
semifinalists related to "WALL-E." Nine finalists have been invited
to provide messages to be placed on a microchip mounted on Curiosity. The
microchip also will contain the names of thousands of people around the world
who have "signed" their names electronically via the Internet.
Additional electronic signatures still are being accepted via the Internet.
Curiosity
will be larger and more capable than any craft previously sent to land on the
red planet. It will check to see whether the environment in a selected landing
region ever has been favorable for supporting microbial life and preserving
evidence of life. The rover also will search
for minerals that formed in the presence of water and look for several
chemical building blocks of life.
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