Washington (AFP)
NASA unveiled the name of its next Mars rover on Thursday: Perseverance.
It will be the fifth exploratory vehicle on the red planet, and will run in the tire tracks of Sojourner (arrived on Mars in 1997), Spirit and Opportunity (2004), as well as Curiosity, which has explored the planet since 2012.
His name was announced at a school in Burke, in the US state of Virginia, where the student who chose him, Alex Mather, was congratulated.
"Alex's proposal captured the spirit of exploration," said NASA chief scientist Thomas Zurbuchen. "Like any exploratory mission in the past, our rover will find itself facing challenges, and will make exceptional discoveries".
Like its predecessors, Perseverance was baptized after a national competition organized with schoolchildren. Among 155 names who arrived as semi-finalists, chosen by nearly 4,700 volunteer judges - including teachers and space enthusiasts - nine were then put to the public vote on the NASA website.
In addition to having had the honor of choosing his name, the young boy is invited with his family to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to attend the launch of the rover, scheduled between June 17 and August 5.
Its arrival on Mars is planned for February 2021, in a crater named Jezero.
The mission has two main objectives: to look for traces of ancient life, and to collect samples which will be hermetically sealed in tubes inside the rover, then rejected until a future Martian mission takes delivery.
The size of a car (3m long and 2.70m wide), the rover has six wheels, like its predecessor Curiosity, to allow it to pass over rocks.
Equipped with a mini-nuclear reactor to supply it with energy, Perseverance has an articulated arm 2.20m long and a drill to spray rock samples.
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