Help Name the Mars Rover! - Winner Announced!

[Gelquie]

So!

NASA is planning on launching another rover to Mars; a sort of sequel robot to Curiosity. This time, it will be focused on collecting evidence of possible life or conditions of life, looking at soil samples, environmental conditions, and more. There's more details, which you can read about on their site.

For the past few months, they've been developing this, while giving a contest to schools to name the rover. They had to submit a name, along with a short essay for why they chose that name. 9 winners have been picked from those...

And now it's the public's turn to vote from those 9 names!

The 9 names are...

Clarity
Courage
Endurance
Fortitude
Ingenuity
Perseverance
Promise
Tenacity
Vision

Voting lasts until midnight (00:01) on January 28th, 2020. So you have 6 days from this post to cast a vote!

You can vote here!

And then if you'd like, you can talk about the naming or the rover itself here! Or you can just vote for your favorite. If you'd like, you can say which one you chose!


I chose... (spoiler boxed for those who would rather not be influenced by other opinions before they vote!)

SPOILER: Click to show

Clarity
Mostly because that name seems to best suited to the intent of the mission. It's also a natural sequel name to Curiosity! And also... It just sounds nice.

[Thorn]

Ooooh this is the coolest! I voted:

SPOILER: Click to show

Tenacity. I may have been a little biased because I named a character that...but it has a nice meaning, and it sounds really good. Perseverance has a similar meaning (I named a character this as well, possibly more bias), but I imagined how both would sound being said aloud on the news and thought Tenacity worked best as a follow-up to Curiosity.

Clarity sounds beautiful as well though!

[Celestial]

Yay, Curiosity is getting a little sibling. \o/

SPOILER: Click to show

I chose Clarity, since it would be a nice pair with Curiosity (alliteration and similar endings), and the purpose of the mission is very much encompassed in the name.

[Killix]

What, no Rover McRoverface?

[Twillie]

Ooh, it took me a minute to make a decision for this! It's easy to be choosy when a lot of the words can be similar in meaning, but in the end I think I found a clear winner for me.

SPOILER: Click to show

And reading others' votes after making mine, looks like I'm not alone in my thinking xD I went with Clarity as well, partly for having another C-name, and also because it sounds like the next step after curiosity. You wonder about something unknown, and then when you explore it becomes clearer.

Also I just like the song >> why are you my clarity~

[Thorn]

R.e. my own choice since I didn't say this earlier:

SPOILER: Click to show

I liked the implications of hard work and dedication, because in the description sent of this project I can imagine a lot of that going on! And 'tenacity' is the idea of doggedly clinging to something even if it's difficult.

I guess that's Mars rovers in general though. I can see why Clarity would make sense specifically in this case, with the soil samples and stuff, and clarifying the things they saw when Curiousity was up there.

[Killix]

I should probably say what I voted for so I don't forget:

SPOILER: Click to show

Clarity.

No blurry cryptid photographs from this rover!

[Gelquie]

Posting again because the winner was announced!

For those not clicking for some reason, the winner is...

SPOILER: Click to show

Perseverance

[Twillie]

Ooh, I had forgotten about this until now haha, thanks for the reminder!

SPOILER: Click to show

Ah, wouldn't have guessed that it would've been Perseverance, but a good name indeed! That's really sweet to see the photos of the boy whose name won, aw~ It may seem like a small detail, the name to give a machine, but it's always nice when people turn it into something special like this and give fond memories and a transformative experience to kids.

[Thorn]

Oh my gosh!

SPOILER: Click to show

This is the name I almost voted for, and it's a super nice one. Tenacity and Perseverance have similar meanings, and they were both nice fits.

What a great essay! I also think it's nice they included a photo of the kid- bet he's over the moon!! Congrats to Alexander indeed!