New Mars rover for July launch named Perseverance

NASA's next Mars rover finally has a name: Perseverance, a six-wheeled robotic explorer, will blast off this summer to collect Martian samples for eventual return to Earth.

name was suggested by Alex Mar, a Virginia seventh-grer, as part of a naming contest for U.S. schoolchildren.

U.S. ncy anunced it Thursday at Alex's school in Burke, Virginia, and he got to re his winning essay live on NASA TV.

“We are a species of explorers and we will meet many setbacks on way to Mars. However, we can persevere,” Alex wrote. “We, t as a nation, but as humans, will t give up. human race will always persevere into future.”

NASA's associate ministrator for science missions, Thomas Zurbuchen, ted that ncy's Curiosity rover has been roaming around Mars since 2012, when Alex and his classmates were babies or little kids.

"Perseverance and curiosity toger are what exploration is all about," he said.

Nearly 4,700 volunteer judges h narrowed a pool of 28,000 contest entries down to 155 semifinalists. Once it was down to nine finalists, public was invited to vote online.

Mar and his family won a trip to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to watch Perseverance get launched into . boy became enamored with at 11 while attending Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. That's when video games took a back seat. He said he wants to become an engineer and work for NASA.

rover is undergoing final preparations at NASA's Kennedy Center. nameplate will be on rover's robot arm and serve as a protective rock guard.