How 28,000 student essays helped name NASA's next Mars explorer

Space · Published 10 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Naming a multi-billion dollar spacecraft is rarely a closed-door corporate decision. For the Mars 2020 rover, NASA turned to the next generation of thinkers, inviting K-12 students across the United States to submit essays that would ultimately determine the identity of a machine destined to search for past life on the Red Planet.

The naming of the Mars 2020 rover was a massive public outreach effort organized as part of a Space Act Agreement between NASA, Battelle of Columbus, Ohio, and Future Engineers. The contest reached a staggering scale, drawing more than 28,000 essays from K-12 students residing in every U.S. state and territory. This democratic approach to branding serves a dual purpose: it fosters public engagement with science and provides a tangible educational milestone for students involved in the process. Amazon Web Services served as the prize provider for this specific naming competition. The initiative was designed to support educational and public outreach goals.

The selection process was rigorous, involving a multi-stage filtration system. Nearly 4,700 volunteer judges—comprised of educators, professionals, and space enthusiasts—narrowed the initial pool of thousands down to 155 semifinalists. From that group, a second round of judging identified nine finalists. The final choice was determined by Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate associate administrator, following a public online vote involving these nine entries. The final naming event was scheduled to be broadcast across multiple platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Media participants were also invited to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to watch the feed.

Technically, the Mars 2020 rover is an evolution of the Curiosity rover. While Curiosity paved the way, the 2020 mission features more sophisticated hardware designed for unprecedented investigations into geological assessments and the habitability of the Martian environment. The rover was being prepared for launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of a broader 'Moon to Mars' strategy, which includes establishing a sustained human presence on the Moon by 2028 via the Artemis program. Out of fifty-eight proposed science instruments, only seven were selected for this mission. These tools will specifically search for signs of past life on the Red Planet.

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