Perseverance: Middle school students named NASA Mars rover to launch this summer to explore signs of life
The Paper reporter Yu Hanqi
On March 5, local time, NASA announced that the 2020 train rover was officially named “Perseverance”.
“Curiosity, courage, opportunity, insight…if you’ve noticed, NASA rovers tend to be named after certain qualities that humans possess.”
“Then we missed the most important point, perseverance,” said 13-year-old high school student Alexander Mather.
On March 5, local time, NASA announced that the 2020 train rover was officially named “Perseverance”.
Mather explained in the short video that for him, “perseverance” not only means that in the face of all the setbacks that space exploration will inevitably face, humans will persist in launching missions and improve technology, but also mean that humans will eventually be on other planets in the solar system. , even outside the solar system.
“We, not as a nation, but as humans, will persevere.” Perseverance: Middle school students named NASA rover to launch this summer to explore signs of life
On NASA’s official website, its “standard photo” also has a nameplate.
Naming children is a NASA tradition. For example, “Curiosity” was named in 2009 by a 12-year-old Chinese girl Ma Tianqi.
Students in the K12 elementary education stage in the United States (equivalent to the domestic kindergarten to high school stage) can submit a name and a short essay of no more than 150 words to explain the reason for the naming.”Perseverance” finally stood out from 28,000 nominations
Mather, who wins the naming rights, will receive a grand prize: an invitation with his family to a launch ceremony at Cape Canavera Air Force Station in Florida in the summer of 2020.
This year’s Mars launch window will open on July 17, and the planned launch of the “Mars 2020” rover is set for July or August. If all goes well, it will land on February 18, 2021, in the Jezero Crater in the northern hemisphere of Mars, 45 kilometers wide and 500 meters deep. Scientists believe that billions of years ago this area may have been a river delta and was habitable.
In the past period of time, Mars rovers have discovered water ice and organic matter under the Martian surface, but have never found the real hammer of Martian creatures. The main task of the “Mars 2020” rover is to continue to search for signs of life on Mars, and to take samples to be sent back to Earth in the future for scientists to analyze. In addition, it will describe the climate and location characteristics of Mars, paving the way for humans to land on Mars in the future.
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