The two microprobes of the Deep Space Two mission have been named after the leaders of the first two expeditions to reach the South Pole, NASA announced Monday, November 15.

The names of the two probes, which will slam into the surface of the Red Planet December 3 around the same time Mars Polar Lander touches down, were selected through a competition that generated 17,000 entries. the contest required that the names be of two historical figures, fictional or mythological characters, or places that were somehow related.

The names Amundsen and Scott were selected by Paul Withers, a planetary science graduate student at the University of Arizona, who drew parallels between their exploration of Antarctica early this century with Deep Space Two's exploration of the south poler regions of Mars now.

"A century ago, Antarctica was the Earth's only unexplored continent," wrote Withers in an essay submitted for the contest. "Then expeditions led by Amundsen and Scott landed there, striving to discover its secrets, seeking knowledge, and finding a land of stark beauty."

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen led the first expedition to each the South Pole, arriving there on December 14, 1911. He beat out a team led by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who arrived at the pole the following month only to find a Norwegian flag left behind by Amundsen's expedition.

For his winning names, Withers wins a $4,000 gift certificate from computer retailer CompUSA, provided by the store as well as aerospace companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Twenty-five runners up will receive Deep Space Two posters autographed by the mission team.

The new names went over well with the mission team. "Deep Space 2 joins Mars Polar Lander as the first missions to venture to the south pole of Mars, so it's only fitting to name the microprobes after the two explorers who first set foot on Earth's South Pole," said Deep Space 2 Project Manager Sarah Gavit. "Like Amundsen and Scott, Deep Space 2 will have to survive great odds, including not only braving the elements but also crashing into the terrain with unbelievable force."

The two probes, flying to Mars on Mars Polar Lander, will separate from the lander prior to arrival at the planet. The probes will enter the Martian atmosphere and reach the surface still travelling at speeds of up to 650 kmph (400 mph), relying only on an aeroshell designed to protect the spacecraft from the heat of atmospheric entry to slow down.

The tremendous force of impact will shatter the aeroshell and separate each probe into two parts. The lower part, or forebody, will penetrate as much as one meter (3.3 feet) into the soil, while the upper part, or aftbody, remains on the surface, transmitting data to Earth via the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.

Deep Space Two, the second in NASA's New Millennium Program of technology demonstration missions. As such, the primary purpose of Deep Space Two is to test new technologies that would be used on future penentrating probes and networks of multiple probes.

The microprobes do carry some scientific instrumentation, including an instrument that would gather a sample of soil and analyze it to find how much water ice, if any, is in it. Measurements of the thermal conductivity of the soil planned by the probes would provide another indicator of how much ice is in the subsurface soil.

The fact that Scott and his expedition died on its way back from the South Pole was not lost on Withers. "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."