Mars 2020 Rover Gets New Name: Perseverance

click to expand

PASADENA (CBSLA) -- After 28,000 entries in an essay contest to name NASA's Mars 2020 rover, the agency has settled on a name: Perseverance.

The six-wheeled robotic explorer is scheduled to take off from Cape Canaveral in July and land on Mars in February 2021.

The Mars 2020 Rover, newly renamed Perseverance, is seen in the spacecraft assembly area clean room, December 27, 2019 during a media tour at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

Alex Mather, a seventh-grade student from Virginia, won the contest to name the rover. He got to read his winning essay live on NASA TV on Thursday.

"Curiosity. InSight. Spirit. Opportunity," Mathers wrote. "If you think about it, all of these names of past Mars rovers are qualities we possess as humans."

There were nearly 4,700 volunteer judges who reviewed essay submissions and helped narrow down the field before eventually selecting Mathers as the winner.

"We as humans evolved as creatures who could learn to adapt to any situation, no matter how harsh," he wrote. "We are a species of explorers and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere."

Perseverance was built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and is now at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for its 2021 launch.