Name the Rover Contest

Name the Rover Contest

Thank You for Your Help in Naming the Mars 2020 Rover!

Rover's First Drive
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The "Name the Rover" public poll is now closed. Participants from all over the world shared their favorite names with NASA, submitting more than 770,000 votes in the poll of the nine finalists.   Thousands of volunteer judges helped review more than 28,000 essay submissions from K-12 students nationwide. Every state and grade level across the U.S. was represented when NASA announced the 155 semifinalists

Come back in early March when NASA announces the essay contest winner.  NASA will invite the winning student to see the spacecraft launch in July 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.  Meanwhile, you can learn more about the Mars 2020 mission, and even see where the rover is now.



More Semifinalist Essays

Public Poll Participation Map

legend for participation map

    Key Dates

    • Contest
      Opens
      Aug. 28 2019
    • Contest
      Closes
      Nov. 01 2019
    • Judging
      Period
      Nov. - Jan. 2019
    • Public
      Poll
      Jan. 2020
    • Final Name
      Announced
      Mar. 2020

    By participating in the essay contest, students:

    • Learn about real NASA missions
    • Apply their critical thinking skills
    • Learn something new, and form questions about a place they may never have heard of
    • Conduct research using NASA websites
    • Applying their writing skills

    The winning essay will be published on NASA's Mars Website.