A pair of tiny probes slated to make space history at Mars' icy south pole next month have been named after the first explorers to reach our own planet's southern extreme.

Paul Withers, a University of Arizona graduate student who studies Mars' thin atmosphere, won the contest for suggesting the names Amundsen and Scott for NASA's Deep Space 2 mission, a submission bolstered by an essay he wrote.

"A century ago, Antarctica was the Earth's only unexplored continent," Withers wrote. "Then expeditions led by Amundsen and Scott landed there, striving to discover its secrets, seeking knowledge and finding a land of stark beauty. Scott perished in Antarctica. His memorial's inscription reads: 'To strive, to seek, to find, not to yield.' These are aims of the Deep Space 2."

The microprobes are slated for a risky, brief search for water ice at Mars' south pole, where they will crash land at nearly 400 mph on December 3 after being released from an 11-month piggyback ride aboard the Mars Polar Lander. The lander is also set to land on Mars that day, albeit softly.

The grapefruit-sized probes are designed to plunge to a depth of three feet beneath the surface. They carry tiny shovels to scoop some polar ice, which the devices can "cook" and analyze for the presence of water. The data will be radioed to Earth.

Withers' submission was among 17,000 received by NASA.

Norwegian Roald Amundsen explored the Northwest Passage before leading the first successful expedition to the South Pole, reaching it on December 14, 1911.

Robert Falcon Scott led an English team to the South Pole in January 1912, only to discover the national flag left during Amundsen's earlier arrival.

Although blizzards and starvation claimed Scott and his entire team on their return trip, a search party later found scientifically valuable diaries and notebooks.