Chinese American girl wins NASA's Mars rover naming contest

LOS ANGELES, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Clara Ma had never dreamed she could name a Mars rover, but this came true on Monday when she signed her name on Curiosity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.had never dreamed she could name a Mars rover, but this came true on Monday when she signed her name on Curiosity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Clara Ma, winner of the Mars Science Laboratory naming contest.

The Mars Rover Curiosity is scheduled to be launched in 2011.

The 12-year-old girl, a sixth-grader from Sunflower elementary school in Lenexa, Kansas, won an essay contest to name NASA's next rover to Mars in May.

She is the only winner among over 9,000 contesters in the United States and the only Chinese American who got the honor to name a Mars rover.

"I feel very excited and honored to name the Mars rover and sign my name on it," Ma told Xinhua after her signing ceremony.

"It took me only about 10 to 20 minutes to finish my essay. I mailed the essay out in January. I never dreamed that I could win," she said, adding that "It is so wonderful, so great."

She said she has great interest and curiosity in space science, which pushed her to participate in the essay contest.

Speaking of why she chose the name "Curiosity" for the Mars rover, she said that's what space exploration is all about.

"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," Ma wrote in her essay.