Sophie Okolo, MPH

I was a judge for the Mars 2020 “Name the Rover” challenge, scoring contest entries from K-12 students around the United States. Get to know the rover and the Mars 2020 mission here.

“The Mars 2020 “Name the Rover” Challenge is presented by challenge partners: NASA, Future Engineers, and Battelle Education. The student contest is part of NASA’s efforts to engage the public in its missions to the Moon and Mars. The currently unnamed rover is a robotic scientist weighing more than 2,300 pounds (1,000 kilograms). It will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet’s climate and geology, collect samples for a future return to Earth, test technologies to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, and pave the way for humans to explore the Red Planet. The spacecraft is targeted for a July 2020 launch and is expected to land on Mars in February 2021.”