Mars rover dubbed Curiosity

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 28 May 2009 12:20

Science - Space

NASA mission program executive Mark Dahl seems to agree. "Many of the nominating essays were excellent and several of the names would have fit well," he said.

"I am especially pleased with the choice, which recognizes something universally human and essential to science."

The name was also endorsed by Pete Theisinger, manager of the JPL team building and testing Curiosity. "Giving it a name worthy of this mission's quest means a lot to the people working on it," he said.

Ma has won a trip to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she will get the chance to sign her name on the rover.

Nine finalists have won the opportunity to write messages that will be stored on a chip attached to Curiosity. You can still have your name included on the chip if you register at the JPL web site.

The contest was run in conjunction with the WALL-E movie, and other prizes - including WALL-E robots, posters and t-shirts - were donated by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Curiosity's mission is to look for evidence of previous life, and to search for chemical building blocks of life and minerals that formed in the presence of water.