Many people might not know that school-aged children have named the Mars rover over the last three decades. From Sojourner in 1997 to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landing in 2004, and Curiosity exploring the Red Planet since 2012, each was selected following a nationwide student naming contest.

And so, to name the latest Mars rover which has lately captivated the world with its detailed imagery, the Mars 2020 program held an essay writing contest. And the winner was Seventh-grader Alex Mather from Lake Braddock Secondary School, whose essay was selected by NASA from a field of over 28,000 entries from K-12 students in every state in the nation! 

The Mars Rover Essay Contest

The essay contest that resulted in Alex’s winning entry began Aug. 28, 2019 and was narrowed to 155 semifinalists. While they didn’t know it at the time, all of the 155 semifinalists’ proposed rover names and essays would be stenciled onto a silicon chip — with lines of text smaller than one-thousandth the width of a human hair — and flown to Mars aboard the rover.

But the nine finalists whittled out of that group received an additional distinction. While their names would be weighed in on by the public and given ultimate consideration by NASA, they were invited to meet and talk with a panel of experts, including Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division; NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins; rover driver Nick Wiltsie at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California; and Clara Ma, who, as a sixth-grade student in 2009, named Curiosity.

Yet only one name could be chosen to grace NASA’s latest rover, a robotic scientist weighing just under 2,300 pounds and tasked with an astrobiology mission that includes searching for signs of past microbial life while characterizing the planet’s climate and geology, and collecting samples of Martian rocks and dust for a future Mars Sample Return mission to Earth.  

Associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen, as part of a celebration at Lake Braddock Secondary School on March 5, 2020, announced that Alex’s name suggestion — Perseverance — would be given to the Mars rover.

“Alex’s entry captured the spirit of exploration,” said Zurbuchen. “Like every exploration mission before, our rover is going to face challenges, and it’s going to make amazing discoveries. It’s already surmounted many obstacles to get us to the point where we are today — processing for launch. Alex and his classmates are the Artemis Generation, and they’re going to be taking the next steps into space that lead to Mars. That inspiring work will always require perseverance.”

Alex’s own space enthusiasm came from a visit to Space Camp in Alabama in the summer of 2018. When asked what led him to choose the name, he explained that Mars missions require a great deal of perseverance… and that perseverance is one of our greatest qualities.

Along with forever being associated with the mission, Alex traveled with his family to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to witness Perseverance as it begin its journey from launch in summer of 2020. And he no doubt is continuing to pay close attention as Perseverance’s stunning imagery continues to pour in.

Here is his essay:

“Curiosity. InSight. Spirit. Opportunity. If you think about it, all of these names of past Mars rovers are qualities we possess as humans. We are always curious, and seek opportunity. We have the spirit and insight to explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond. But, if rovers are to be the qualities of us as a race, we missed the most important thing. Perseverance. We as humans evolved as creatures who could learn to adapt to any situation, no matter how harsh.

We are a species of explorers, and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere. We, not as a nation but as humans, will not give up. The human race will always persevere into the future.”