---
title: "NASA Names Mars Landing Site After Sci-Fi Pioneer Octavia Butler"
description: "NASA announced Friday that the touchdown site of the Perseverance Rover will be named after sci-fi writer and pioneer Octavia Butler."
date: "2021-03-06"
modified: "2021-03-06"
authors:
  - name: "Tony Ho Tran"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/ttran"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-names-mars-landing-site-after-black-sci-fi-pioneer-octavia-butler"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "mars"
  - "NASA"
  - "octavia butler"
  - "the digest"
---

# NASA Names Mars Landing Site After Sci-Fi Pioneer Octavia Butler

![NASA announced Friday that the touchdown site of the Perseverance Rover will be named after sci-fi writer and pioneer Octavia Butler.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/octavia-butler-landing-1.jpg>)
*NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona \<em\>Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona\</em\>*

## Welcome to Mars, Octavia Butler

NASA has announced that the official name of the Perseverance Rover touchdown site is "Octavia E. Butler Landing," in honor of the late, award-winning science fiction writer.

The agency made their announcement on Friday during a press conference detailing [Percy's recent drive](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-mars-rover-officially-move>) along the Martian surface**,** [according to *Space.com*](<https://www.space.com/perseverance-rover-mars-landing-named-for-octavia-butler>)*.*

"Butler's pioneering work explores themes of race, gender equality in humanity, centering on the experiences of Black women at a time when such voices were largely absent from science fiction," said Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance's deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, during the conference.

The location can be seen in the image below marked with a yellow star:

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/octavia-butler-landing.jpg>)
*NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona*

## Vision, Genius, and Timelessness

Honestly, we can’t think of a more deserving person for the landing site to be named after — and we're are glad NASA thinks so too.

Butler's books, which garnered her both Nebula and Hugo awards, covered a gamut of subjects and themes like biting critiques of racism and sexism, alien symbiotes bonding with humans, and the devastating aftermath of the climate crisis. Butler, who passed away in 2006, spearheaded sci-fi that has inspired an entire generation of POC writers, artists, and scientists to pursue work that they might not have otherwise.

"Butler inspired and influenced the planetary science community and many beyond — including those typically underrepresented by STEM fields," Morgan continued. "The fact that her works are as relevant today — if not more so — than when they were originally written and published is a testament to her vision, genius, and timelessness."

https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1367939549507153920

## Legends Live On

Octavia E. Butler Landing is part of a tradition at NASA of naming otherworldly locations, landmarks, and spacecraft after inspirational writers and artists who have left an indelible mark on the scientific community.

For example, the landing site where the Curiosity Rover landed in 2012 in the Gale Crater was named after fellow science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. In 1997, NASA named the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft the Carl Sagan Memorial Station after the lauded astronomer and television host.

Now Butler, who also became the first sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship in 1995, will permanently have her name and legacy etched in the surface of Mars — and we can’t think of a more fitting honor.

**READ MORE:** [Welcome to 'Octavia E. Butler Landing'](<https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/welcome-to-octavia-e-butler-landing>) \[NASA\]

**More on books:** [*This Ebook Company Is Trying to Make Reading More Like Videogames*](<https://futurism.com/people-reading-publishers-gamifying-books>)

## Author
Tony Tran is a former reporter for Futurism, and now an editor at the Daily Beast. His work has been seen in Playboy, HuffPost, Narratively, and wherever else fine writing is published. He lives in Chicago where he frequently plans tabletop gaming sessions for his friends.