[meteorite-list] NASA Selects Student's Entry as New Mars Rover Name (MSL)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 17:38:25 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200905280038.RAA04088_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

May 27, 2009

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

Alan Buis/Carolina Martinez
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0474/9382
alan.buis at jpl.nasa.gov
carolina.martinez at jpl.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 09-122

NASA SELECTS STUDENT'S ENTRY AS NEW MARS ROVER NAME

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled for
launch in 2011, has a new name thanks to a sixth-grade student from
Kansas. Twelve-year-old Clara Ma from the Sunflower Elementary school
in Lenexa submitted the winning entry, "Curiosity." 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.

A NASA panel selected the name following a nationwide student contest
that attracted more than 9,000 proposals via the Internet and mail.
The panel primarily took into account the quality of submitted
essays. 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."

The naming contest was conducted in partnership with Disney-Pixar's
animated film "WALL-E." The activity invited ideas from students 5 -
18 years old enrolled in a U.S. school. The contest started in
November 2008. Entries were accepted until midnight Jan. 25.

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.

"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."

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.

The Mars Science Laboratory project is managed by JPL for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the mission and the contest winner, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

To send your name on the rover microchip, visit:

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/sendyourname
        
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Received on Wed 27 May 2009 08:38:25 PM PDT