What was the name of the student who named the Sojourner rover?

The student who named the Sojourner rover was Valerie Ambroise. She was 12 years old and lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut, when her winning entry was selected in an international naming competition.

The competition was organized by The Planetary Society in cooperation with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Students aged 18 and under were asked to choose a heroine and explain how that person’s achievements could relate to a rover exploring Mars. Ambroise proposed Sojourner, honoring Sojourner Truth, the African-American abolitionist and women’s-rights advocate.

Sojourner reached Mars aboard NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission on July 4, 1997. It became the first wheeled vehicle to operate on a world beyond Earth and the Moon. The competition received about 3,500 essays. Other finalists suggested names connected with Marie Curie and astronaut Judith Resnik, but Ambroise’s choice became the rover’s official name. The vehicle was also known technically as the Microrover Flight Experiment, or MFEX.