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NASA's Mars rover has a new name: "Perseverance" follows "Curiosity"

2020-03-06T12:46:52.183Z


NASA's next Mars rover is just around the corner. But what is the name of the vehicle that will soon roll over Mars? NASA is voting.


NASA's next Mars rover is just around the corner. But what is the name of the vehicle that will soon roll over Mars? NASA is voting.

  • NASA's "Mars 2020" rover got its final name: "Perseverance"
  • Nine name suggestions were available - every Internet user was allowed to vote
  • In summer 2020 , four missions to Mars are due to start - including the NASA rover

Update from March 6, 2020: NASA's next Mars rover has a new name: "Perseverance", which means endurance or persistence. That was announced by the US space agency Nasa. Previously, there was an online competition with nine names to choose from. The proposal from Alexander Mather, a seventh grader who proposed the name "Perseverance", has now won. A total of 28,000 names were suggested.

New name: "Mars 2020" rover is now called "Perseverance"

"Alex's proposal captured the spirit of research," said NASA science director Thomas Zurbuchen in a statement. "As in every mission before, our rover will have to master challenges and it will make exciting discoveries," continued Zurbuchen. "We can't wait to see the name tag on Mars."

The names of the previous rovers were already suggested by students - most recently “Curiosity”, the rover that has been exploring Mars since 2012.

"Mars 2020" rover gets a new name - nine options

First announcement from January 22, 2020: Before the next Mars rover of the US space agency Nasa starts its journey to the red planet in summer, it needs a name. So far it has simply been called the "Mars 2020" rover, but a competition has been running for months, in which US students were allowed to suggest names for the rover . Around 28,000 students have made suggestions, from which nine names have been selected.

Nasa is looking for a name for its Mars rover - everyone can vote

Under these nine names, which Nasa has now published, anyone interested can now choose their favorite and vote. The following names are available:

  • Courage
  • Fortitude
  • Tenacity
  • Ingenuity
  • Promise
  • Vision
  • Clarity
  • Endurance
  • Perseverance

Internet users from all over the world can vote on the future name of the new Mars rover until January 27, 2020, and the winner's name is to be announced in early March. The Mars rover is scheduled to launch on Mars in summer 2020. Then a time window opens that is perfect for flights to the red planet : Mars and Earth are particularly favorable to each other, so that the flight time is significantly reduced. The "Mars 2020" rover, which by then will have had a different name, is scheduled to land in February 2021.

Get your geek on: Help @NASA name the next Mars rover. Cast your vote by Jan. 26 at https://t.co/7fhWVGF7TQ # Mars2020 pic.twitter.com/CVBd2a5E9B

- Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) January 22, 2020

Four missions to Mars will start in the summer of 2020 - NASA will also be there

On Mars, the roughly one-ton rover, which is based on the "Curiosity" Mars rover that has been active since 2012, is supposed to search for traces of past life and find out whether Mars could once have been home to life. NASA also wants to find out whether there are conserved biosignatures in accessible geological material. The rover is said to take samples to be returned to Earth on a possible future mission.

The rover also has technology demonstrations with it: A small helicopter is to show whether an autonomous, controlled flight is possible in the very thin Martian atmosphere. An experiment called "MOXIE" is said to convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere of Mars into oxygen . This is also a technology demonstration in preparation for future manned Mars missions.

Four missions to Mars will start in summer 2020 - NASA will also be there

In addition to the still nameless NASA rover, three more missions to Mars are due to start in summer 2020. With the rover "Rosalind Franklin", the European Space Agency Esa sends the last part of the "ExoMars" mission on a journey to Mars. China wants to land on Mars with a rover, after the nation has already had many successes on the moon. The fourth in the group is the "Hope" mission of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) . It would be the Emirates' first major space mission to land on Mars on time in the 50th year after the UAE was founded.

By Tanja Banner

Rubric list image: © NASA / JPL-Caltech

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2020-03-06

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