For Students: Mars 2020 Name the Rover Essay Contest By Nov. 1

(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 12^th 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 4^th Grade

• 5^th to 8^th Grade

• 9^th to 12^th 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:

Link >>> https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/name-the-rover/

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:

Link >>> https://www.futureengineers.org/registration/judge/nametherover

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.
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  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
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  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
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* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
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