Online Poll for NASA's Mars Rover Naming Contest Opens March 23

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2009-055 March 19, 2009

Online Poll for NASA's Mars Rover Naming Contest Opens March 23

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will post online nine names that are finalists for the agency's Mars
Science Laboratory mission and invite the public to vote for its favorite. The non-binding poll to
help NASA select a name opens online Monday, March 23, and will accept votes through March
29.

More than 9,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grades submitted essays proposing names
for the rover in a nationwide contest that ended Jan. 25. Entries came from all 50 states, Puerto
Rico and the families of American service personnel overseas. NASA will select the winning
name, based on a student's essay and the public poll, and announce the name in April.

"The names that students proposed range from heroes to animals and bugs," said Michelle Viotti,
manager of the Mars Public Engagement program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. "No matter what name is finally chosen, this is a mission for everyone, and we
can't wait to start calling this rover by name."

The student who submitted the winning name will be invited to JPL to sign the rover.
Additionally, all 30 student semifinalists in the naming contest will have an opportunity to place
an individually-tailored message on a microchip that will be carried on the car-sized robotic
explorer.

For worldwide participation beyond the contest, the public also has a chance to participate in
"Send Your Name to Mars." The agency will collect names to be recorded on the microchip.
Names will be collected via the contest Web link beginning Monday, March 23.

The naming contest is part of a Space Act Agreement between NASA and Disney. Walt Disney
Studios Motion Pictures is the prize provider for the contest. This collaboration made it possible
for WALL-E, the animated robotic hero from the 2008 movie of the same name, to appear in the
online content inviting students to participate.

Scheduled to launch in 2011 and land on Mars in 2012, the rover will use a set of advanced
science instruments to check whether the environment in a selected landing region ever has been
favorable for supporting microbial life and preserving evidence of such life. The rover also will
search for minerals that formed in the presence of water and look for chemical building blocks of
life.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Science Laboratory
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

To view the nine finalist names and cast your vote, visit: http://marsrovername.jpl.nasa.gov .

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