(Image Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org, By NASA/JPL-Caltech - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA19672.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40891664)
By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower
NASA is offering the Mars 2020 Name the Rover essay contest for
Kindergarten to 12th Grade students in public, religious,
private, and home schools. The student with the winning essay will
name the Mars 2020 Rover and will be invited to watch the launch of
the mission at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (near the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida) in July of 2020.
"This naming contest is a
wonderful opportunity for our nation's youth to get involved with
NASA's Moon to Mars missions," said NASA Administrator Jim
Bridenstine. "It is an exciting way to engage with a rover that
will likely serve as the first leg of a Mars Sample return campaign,
collecting and caching core samples from the Martian surface for
scientists here on Earth to study for the first time."
The deadline for this student essay
contest is November 1. By the
November 1 deadline, students should submit a short essay (no more
than 150 words) giving their proposed name for the Mars 2020 Rover
and why this name should be chosen by NASA officials.
Judging the essay
contest will be divided by grade level:
- Kindergarten to 4th Grade
- 5th to 8th Grade
- 9th to 12th Grade
Student essays
will be judged on the appropriateness, significance and originality
of their proposed name, and the originality and quality of their
essay. There may be an interview presentation for finalists.
From each of the three
grade judging groups, 52 semifinalists will be selected per group,
each representing their respective state or U.S. territory. Three
finalists then will be selected from each group to advance to the
final round.
In January of next
year, the public will have the chance to vote, on-line, on the nine
finalist Rover name suggestions, from the nine finalist essays which will be posted on the NASA Mars Internet Web-Site. On 2020 February 18 (exactly one
year from the 2021 date of the Mars 2020 landing on Mars), NASA plans
to announce the winning name for the Mars 2020 Rover.
Go to the
following Internet World Wide Web link for complete contest and prize
details, and how to enter the essay contest:
NASA is also
looking for volunteers to judge the thousands of contest entries
expected. U.S. residents, age 18 or older, who can offer about 5
hours of their time to judge the contest entries, should register to
be a judge at the following link:
Internet Links to Additional Information ---
Mars 2020 Rover:
Link 1 >>> https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mars2020/
Link 2 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_2020
Related Blog-Posts ---
"Place Your Name on Mars 2020 Rover Microchip By This Monday, Sept. 30." 2019 Sept. 26.
Link >>> https://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2019/09/place-your-name-on-mars-2020-rover.html
"Help Astronomers Name Large Kuiper Belt Asteroid." 2019 April 26.
Link >>> https://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2019/04/help-astronomers-name-large-kuiper-belt.html
Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.
Tuesday, 2019 October 15.
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gaw
Glenn A. Walsh, Informal Science Educator & Communicator:
< http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
Project Director, Friends of the Zeiss: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Formerly Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer, original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science & technology museum from 1939 to 1991.
Formerly Trustee, Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetarium.
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
< http://adlerplanetarium.
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
< http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
< http://www.andrewcarnegie.
