Excellent name
kudos to Clara
A 12-year-old girl from Kansas has chosen the name of NASA's nuclear-powered Mars Science Laboratory rover. Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech Clara Ma, an elementary student from Lenexa, Kansas, submitted the winning entry, "Curiosity" for the space agency's nationwide essay contest for youths to name the rover. Her …
OMG, pink pony!
That passage from her essay doesn't sound like it came from a 12yo. I suspect some over-the shoulder input from an overzealous mom and pop.
So this thing is going to look for water and signs of life? Like the last three or four? Didn't they find water already? Pretty friggin amazing that it has taken them this long to figure out the perchorate problem. This time they'll probably figure out that the nukes interfere with the radiation sensors.
Really? I would have said that the somewhat corny phrasing is EXACTLY what I would expect from a bright 12-year-old girl. As for pink ponies – across the entire country, there are bound to be SOME girls who aren’t obsessed with horses. Just entering the competition implies a much-greater-than-average interest in science.
As for the perchlorate thing, it seems par for the course for NASA probes. Didn’t someone theorise last year that the Viking landers probably fried the local wildlife with their landing rockets before they even GOT to the sampling stage.