NASA Picks Perseverance as Name for Newest Mars Rover

(Bloomberg) -- A Virginia seventh-grader came up with the winning name for NASA’s newest Mars rover, Perseverance, chosen from among 28,000 public entries.

The 2,260-pound robotic scientific vehicle is scheduled to launch in July and arrive on the red planet next February. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s previous Mars rovers were named Curiosity, Opportunity and Sojourner.

Opportunity’s mission was declared complete in February 2019 after 15 years of work when NASA lost contact with the vehicle. Curiosity continues to explore the planet, and Sojourner finished its mission in 1997. The agency also operates the InSight Mars Lander platform, which is exploring below the planet’s surface.

The name Perseverance was submitted by Alex Mather, a student at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia. He and his family will be invited to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to watch the rover’s launch.

NASA said Thursday that it received 770,000 votes on the finalists.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Bachman in Dallas at jbachman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Case at bcase4@bloomberg.net, Tony Robinson

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