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NASA You’ve Got Perseverance! -Elaina Hall

 Watch the Full Video of Elaina's NASA Experience here!


Submitted by Holli Hall-

Elaina Hall is in 8th grade and the daughter of Michael and Holli Hall of Russellville and brother to Justin Hall in 11th grade. NASA was sponsoring an event opportunity for students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades to have the chance to receive a message from the Perseverance Rover on Mars and speak with the NASA Mission Control Team at JPL that built, launched, and directs the rover You've Got Perseverance! - NASA Mars

To receive this honor, students had to be nominated by a teacher and had to demonstrate academic perseverance. This opportunity was shared by the RMS and RJHS principals to their faculty. Mrs. Amy Covey, Lead Science Teacher at RJHS, nominated Elaina based on her academic endeavors in her classroom as well as in Mr. Mickey Duvall’s Advanced Algebra class at RJHS. Elaina’s nomination advanced through two nationwide rounds and then she was one of only 20 students selected as an Awardee on March 24 and her name is posted on the official website at You've Got Perseverance: Awardees - NASA Mars.
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Elaina has had a long-time love for learning about space and all things NASA so this was a momentous experience for her. She often dresses head-to-toe in space and NASA-themed clothing and is known as the “galaxy chick” to her friends at school. 
Elaina invited several of her friends along with her immediate family and both sets of her grandparents Bill & Lucy Hall and Herbert & Frances Henderson got to attend. Each Awardee got to ask the NASA team a question. 
Elaina’s question to the rover team was “What is the most exciting find that Perseverance has discovered so far?” This was a great question and the NASA team answered that when they chose the landing site for the rover the crater looked to be a lake basin from a long-gone river. The hopes were that buried in the sedimentary rocks would be identifiable remnants of microbial life. However, the core samples revealed that the crater was actually from an extinct volcano and the core rock samples they have gathered so far are igneous lava samples instead. This information may then change the driving course of the rover away from the ancient lava flow toward a secondary sampling site.\r\n
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