"Curiosity"--Clara Ma names next Mars rover

Winner number two in the metropolis. On May 28th Kavya Shivashankar from Olathe, Kansas won first place in the Scripps' National Spelling Bee Contest and today NASA announced the Mars Science Laboratory naming contest winner...Clara Ma from Lenexa, Kansas, [The two cities are adjacent to each other.]

Congratulations to Clara Ma.

Here is her winning essay...

Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind. It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that day. Curiosity is such a powerful force. Without it, we wouldn't be who we are today. When I was younger, I wondered, 'Why is the sky blue?', 'Why do the stars twinkle?', 'Why am I me?', and I still do. I had so many questions, and America is the place where I want to find my answers. Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder. Sure, there are many risks and dangers, but despite that, we still continue to wonder and dream and create and hope. We have discovered so much about the world, but still so little. We will never know everything there is to know, but with our burning curiosity, we have learned so much.

Audio clip

Here's an artist's conception of what the new rover will look like on Mars.

"Lenexa girl wins NASA's Mars rover naming contest"

by

Jim Sullinger

May 27th, 2009

The Kansas City Star

"Curiosity" and a stellar essay have landed a 12-year-old Lenexa girl the honor of naming NASA's next Mars rover.

NASA announced Wednesday that Clara Ma, a sixth-grader at Sunflower Elementary School, and her suggested name, Curiosity, were chosen over 9,000 students nationally who submitted essays to name the rover.

Her prize will be a trip to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to sign her name directly on the rover as it is being assembled. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is providing the prize.

Clara said it would be a thrill to know that the rover would be carrying her name to Mars. Getting the call recently that she had won the essay contest was especially exciting.

"I was really surprised and really excited," Clara said. "My sister and I were running up and down our stairs."

She and her family were required to keep her win a secret until the official announcement Wednesday at an assembly at her school. Clara said it was difficult keeping the news from her friends.

The Curiosity rover is to be launched in 2011 and land on Mars in 2012. It 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.

Clara was among nine finalists in the contest, which was open to students from kindergarten to 12th grade, who submitted names ranging from heroes to animals to bugs.

Mark Dahl, the mission’s program executive at NASA in Washington, said several of the names would have fit well.

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

In Clara's essay, she called curiosity "an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind."

"We have discovered so much about the world, but still so little," she wrote. "We will never know everything there is to know, but with burning curiosity, we have learned so much."

The award was presented to Clara by Suparna Mukherjee, a NASA engineer working on the rover.

"She's going to come out to JPL and actually sign the robot and get a tour of the lab, and we're real excited that we have a good name," Mukherjee said.

And...

When the new Mars rover blasts off for the red planet in 2011, the launch will carry special significance for a 12-year-old Lenexa girl.

The name it will bear — "Curiosity"— was provided by Clara Ma, a sixth-grader at Sunflower Elementary School.

She was among 9,000 students nationally who submitted essays to NASA suggesting a name for the rover. NASA announced today that Clara had won at a special assembly at the Lenexa school.

Her prize will be a trip to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to sign her name directly on the rover as it is being assembled.

"Many of the nominating essays were excellent, and several of the names would have fit well," said Mark Dahl, the mission’s program executive at NASA in Washington. "I am especially pleased with the choice, which recognizes something universally human and essential to science."

In her essay, Clara called curiosity "an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind."

"We have discovered so much about the world, but still so little," she wrote. "We will never know everything there is to know, but with burning curiosity, we have learned so much."