NASA’s next rover to Mars finally has a name. Perseverance.

This name was chosen by a seventh-grader from Virginia, Alexander Mather. He was one of the 28,000 people who submitted entries to NASA’s “Name the Rover” essay contest. 

Perseverance is undergoing a final check and assembly before it will be sent out to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In addition to getting to name the rover, Alexander and his family will be flown out to Florida to witness the launch of Perseverance. The launch is scheduled to take place between July 17 and August 5 and scheduled to land on Mars on February 18, 2021. The mission of Perseverance is to collect samples from the Red Planet and to search for signs of ancient life. 

When asked why Alexander’s entry was chosen, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate answered, “Alex’s entry captured the spirit of exploration, like every exploration mission before, our rover is going to face challenges, and it’s going to make amazing discoveries.” Perseverance is the most recent of the long list of names of rovers that have been named by young children.

What would you have named this rover?