This illustration exhibits what the rover will seem like on Mars.
NASA
NASA is ready to start one other highway journey on Mars and on Thursday it plans to announce the identify of the rover that is scheduled to start that journey to the purple planet as quickly as July.
For years, the brand new robotic explorer has been recognized merely as “Mars 2020.” However final 12 months, NASA held a contest asking college students from across the US to jot down an essay suggesting a reputation for the rover. Over 4,00zero judges reviewed greater than 28,00zero entries to whittle the checklist down to 155 semifinalists. One other spherical decreased the alternatives to simply 9 finalists: Endurance, Tenacity, Promise, Perseverance, Imaginative and prescient, Readability, Ingenuity, Fortitude and Braveness.
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Meet the Mars 2020 rover launching this 12 months
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The area company will announce Thursday which of the above adventurous appellations shall be affixed to NASA’s new robotic earlier than it goes to hitch its siblings, Sojourner, Spirit, Alternative and Curiosity on our neighboring planet.
The identify shall be revealed throughout a reside occasion on NASA TV at 10:30 a.m. PT. You possibly can bookmark this web page and are available again to look at right here through the embedded video under:
The brand new rover will carry a collection of devices designed to search for proof of previous microbial life, gather samples to be despatched again to Earth sooner or later and collect information that can assist allow eventual human exploration.
After launch in July or August, the newly named rover will journey to Jezero Crater, which is assumed to have been coated by a lake about the identical dimension as Lake Tahoe within the distant previous. Touchdown is ready for Feb. 18, 2021.
