What should the Mars 2020 rover be named? Nine kids think they know.

Scientists work last summer on the Mars 2020 rover in the clean room of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA held a contest asking kids to name the rover, which is scheduled to launch in July or August. Nine finalists were announced this week from more than 28,000 entries. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Among the posters of planets, rockets and rovers pasted on the sky-blue walls in 9-year-old Oliver Jacobs’s bedroom in Arlington, Virginia, one object is missing. The Barrett Elementary student’s space shrine doesn’t include the under-construction Mars 2020 rover.

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Or as Oliver always corrects: the Mars Endurance rover.

He thinks Endurance should be the name of the rover scheduled to launch in July or August. The name would be a nod to Ernest Shackleton, who sailed a ship called Endurance to explore Antarctica, a “harsh and unforgiving surface and environment” similar to Mars, Oliver says.

The fourth-grader is among nine students, ages 9 to 19, who are finalists in the “Name the Rover” essay contest. NASA started with more than 28,000 submissions. The possible names are Clarity, Courage, Endurance, Fortitude, Ingenuity, Perseverance, Promise, Tenacity and Vision. People can vote for their favorite on the NASA website until January 27 at midnight. The new name will be announced in March.

This isn’t the first time NASA has contracted out to young space enthusiasts — the past four rovers (Curiosity, Spirit, Opportunity and Sojourner) were named by kids.

Each name relates to the rover’s mission, said Carolina Martinez, who works on public engagement for NASA’s Mars programs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. For instance, Curiosity’s purpose was to search for signs of past life on Mars.

“The name builds a character and personality, and people connect to that,” she said. “The rovers are like us; they have names.”

The Mars 2020 rover will search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet and collect soil and rock samples. NASA expects it will land February 18, 2021, on the Jezero Crater.

The contest winner will be flown to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to watch the launch. In their essays, the finalists wrote about their interest in science and seeing the rover discovering Mars.

Nora Benitez, 14, and her family drove twice from their home in San Diego, California,to see the lab where the rover was built in Pasadena. That’s where she heard about the contest from her tour guide.

Nora, who is in eighth grade, chose the name Clarity because 2020 reminded her of 20/20, or perfect, vision. She said having that name considered is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“The rover is something that will be a part of my future, and getting to name it will be like being a part of the history,” she said.

Vaneeza Rupani, an 11th-grader from Northport, Alabama, submitted the name Ingenuity because of the inventiveness of the rover.

“Ingenuity perfectly captured humanity’s wonderful capability of creating a machine that could travel to and do science on another world,” the 17-year-old said.

When she gets to be an aerospace engineer, Vaneeza hopes to embody the enterprising spirit of the rovers.

The last winner of a rover naming contest, to name Curiosity in 2008, was Clara Ma, who is now 23.

Ma was inspired by the rover’s purpose to inquire and learn but also how she felt growing up.

“Curiosity is what motivated me to ask questions,” she said. “I asked questions about literally everything. I wanted to learn about everything.”

Ma is now in England, completing a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge in science, technology and environmental policy. She credits her accomplishments partly to naming the rover.

“A piece of me went up in that rocket that day,” she said.

Alex Mather, a seventh-grader at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, said he felt special when he found out his name suggestion, Perseverance, was picked out of thousands of Mars 2020 submissions, but he was also excited for the other finalists.

“I may never get to meet them, but when I read their essays I knew these are my people,” the 13-year-old said. “These are fellow space nerds.”