The 9 winning students in the Red Rover Goes to Mars Training Mission Student Scientist selection are being announced today in the press release we are sending you.

We appreciate your nation's participation in the contest(s) and applaud the work that you have done to bring this opportunity to the students of your nation.

International final judging of the semi_finalist essays yielded students at the very top of all the submissions. The panel of judges, including NASA engineers and scientists, chose 9 winning essays (top 3 essays per age category) and alternates in each age category. Each of the top 9 students
were contacted immediately to arrange an interview. All of these students passed their interviews, so no alternates were needed.

If none of the students in your nation were interviewed in this process, we would like to remind your students that their essays were among the top essays in the world. It is also quite possible that some of their essays were among the highest in one or more of the age categories, but just not high enough in standing to reach the available 9 openings. We want to give you and your students this very encouraging message and tell you how much we valued your participation.

We urge you to continue your participation. By participating, students are exposed to state_of_the_art planetary exploration. Also, your semi_finalist entrants will be hearing personally from The Society. Your students will receive a letter from us congratulating them for being semi_finalists, a certificate to acknowledge that their essays were among the best in the world, and a one_year free membership in The Planetary Society.

We look forward to your students participation in the journal contest and the art contest to draw the landing site selected by the Student Scientists from the ground, which will have winners from every nation (details will come to you in January). We encourage your students to follow along with the activities of the Student Scientists through our website http://planetary.org.

Also, we are hoping for inclusion by NASA in the '03 twin rover missions to Mars, which will bring the scope of Red Rover Goes to Mars to what we had originally envisioned before the cancellation of the '01 lander.

I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to you, and my sincere congratulations to all of your students who reached this level of competition.

Sincerely,

Linda Kelly
Education Manager
Red Rover Goes to Mars