Indian-origin girl names NASA's first Mars helicopter that will accompany the rover

National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA) on April 29 announced the name of its first Mars helicopter that will accompany its rover on the red planet. NASA announced that its first Mars helicopter is named 'Ingenuity', which was suggested by an Indian-origin girl after she submitted her essay into NASA's 'Name the Rover'. 17-year-old Vaneeza Rupani was credited for her suggestion by NASA on its official Twitter handle. 

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Rupani is a high school junior from Northport, Alabama and her essay was among 28,000 essays submitted to NASA by K-12 students from every US state and territory recommending names for the next Mars rover. "The ingenuity and brilliance of people working hard to overcome the challenges of interplanetary travel are what allow us all to experience the wonders of space exploration. Ingenuity is what allows people to accomplish amazing things, and it allows us to expand our horizons to the edges of the universe," NASA quoted Rupani as writing in her contest submission.

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Ingenuity will be the first aircraft to attempt powered flight on a different planet. "Ingenuity encapsulates the values that our helicopter tech demo will showcase for everyone when it takes off next year as the first aircraft on another planet’s surface. It took a lot of hard and ingenious work to get the helicopter ready and then placed on the rover, and there’s a lot more going to be required. I was happy we had another great name from the naming contest finalists from which I was able to select something so representative of this exciting part of our next mission to Mars," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was quoted as saying by the space agency on its webpage.

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NASA's rover naming contest

NASA in March finalised a name for its rover which was suggested by seventh-grader Alexander Mather. NASA named the rover 'Perseverance' after the name got the most number of votes on a poll conducted by the space agency on its social media handle. However, NASA decided to choose another essay from the submissions to name its helicopter because of so many good suggestions, said the space agency. 

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(Image Credit: NASA/Twitter)