TCHS Senior Celebrates Mars Rover Landing After Naming Helicopter

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Students and faculty at Tuscaloosa County High School watched along with the rest of the world as NASA landed its most advanced rover yet — Perseverance — on Mars Thursday, which happens to have a special connection to the school.

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Attached to the Perseverance rover is the Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. TCHS senior Vaneeza Rupani was one of 28,000 students who entered a NASA contest to name the rover and helicopter and was chosen after entering the name "Ingenuity.”

"The ingenuity and brilliance of people working hard to overcome the challenges of interplanetary travel are what allow us all to experience the wonders of space exploration," Rupani wrote in her contest essay submission. "Ingenuity is what allows people to accomplish amazing things, and it allows us to expand our horizons to the edges of the universe."

The Tuscaloosa County School System said NASA sent stickers and posters to TCHS to celebrate the occasion, while the Tuscaloosa Krispy Kreme also delivered some of its Mars donuts.

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