A Viewpoint Worth Repeating. (June 5, 2009)

Science reports that the next Mars rover will be named Curiosity. The name was suggested by Clara Ma, age 12, from Lenexa, Kansas.

She explained:

Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind. It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that day. Curiosity is such a powerful force. Without it, we wouldn't be who we are today. Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder. ... We will never know everything there is to know, but with our burning curiosity, we have learned so much.

Ms Ma is scheduled to go to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and will sign her name on the rover now in construction and scheduled to be launched in 2011.