NASA has invited students to name its next rover that is scheduled to land on Mars in February 2021. The US space agency has sponsored ‘Name the Rover’ challenge, winners of which will be announced on February 18. The challenge is open to K-12 students in the US who will need to submit the name of the rover along with an original, short essay of a maximum of 150 words.
The proposed name of the rover should not exceed 50 characters, as per the rules of the contest. In addition, the proposed name can also not be any past, current or proposed space missions or planned astronomical observatories and can not include terms for ongoing NASA flight programs.
In case participants want to name the rover in after a person, then that person must be deceased. It should not include corporate names, brand names, or otherwise trademarked words.
To reiterate, the entries for the challenge close at 11:59 pm PT on November 1. The finalists will be announced January 20, following which the entries will be put out for a public poll on January 22. The final interviews will be held on February 7, while winners will finally be announced on February 18.
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is expected to launch into space next year and land on the Red Planet in 2021, where it will stay for at least one Mars year on the surface, which is about 687 Earth days. NASA recently shared a video of Mars 2020 rover testing the arm flex given its ability to lift weights will be crucial. The rover will be collecting rock samples for the space agency to study.
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