Annabelle Ritchie is in her element when talking about Pathfinder, Opportunity (MER-B) and Curiosity.
And if she has her way, she will help build the next generation of robotic rovers that will explore Mars.
The 17-year-old Columba College pupil is one step closer to her dream after being selected by the Royal Society of New Zealand to attend the Summer Research School (SRS) in Bulgaria in July.
Organised by the Campus of American University in Blagoevgrad, the Summer Research School offers high achievers a chance to develop their strong interest in mathematics and informatics by working with scientific mentors from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and guests from international research universities.
Royal Society of New Zealand chief executive Andrew Cleland said it would be a great opportunity for Annabelle to interact with experts at the top of their fields in maths and informatics.
"Each student will focus on a personal research topic from challenging fields such as number theory, computing and modelling.
"The programme includes lectures on advanced scientific problems and modern technologies, meetings with representatives of industry and different academic institutions, soft skills training and discussions on important issues such as ethics in science and responsible research and innovation.''
Annabelle said she was now building her own radio telescope - a radio receiver and an antenna system that detects radio-frequency radiation emitted by extraterrestrial sources.
She hoped to collect radio waves emitted from Jupiter and analyse them during the summer school.
Next year, she planned to study mechatronics engineering at university - a multidisciplinary field of engineering that includes a combination of systems engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, telecommunications engineering, control engineering and computer engineering - all subjects used by those building rovers to explore other planets.
"If I could build rovers like Curiosity for Nasa, that's definitely the best outcome possible. That would be awesome.''
Annabelle will attend the three-week SRS with Upper Hutt College pupil Alexander
Elzenaar.
