TiME Options

[rlorenz]

Ahoy mateys!

NASA announces Discovery mission selection for Phase A.

Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) is among them. Har!

[nprev]

Not a bad point, Explorer, and I think that NH was very well-named indeed.

Too bad that so many of the maritime pioneer names have been taken; TiME, of all missions to date, deserves a nautical name. Frankly, though, I don't care if we call it the "Benthic Explorer: Nautical Depth, Environmental Reconnaissance" or "Nautical Probe: Revealing Ethane Vastness" ; I just want it to fly, very, very badly.

(Okay...so maybe I would slightly favor the latter acronym...)

[DFinfrock]

TiME, of all missions to date, deserves a nautical name.

We've honored past astronomers with Galileo, Cassini and Huygens. So why not honor a mariner like Captain James Cook, Roald Amundsen, or James Clark Ross. It seems that an explorer of the Arctic or Antarctic oceans would be a good choice for a robotic explorer of the frigid lakes of Titan. Or maybe even a ship's name? Perhaps the Fram, or even the Titan Challenger, to honor that historic 19th century oceanographic voyage.

[polaris]

We've honored past astronomers with Galileo, Cassini and Huygens. So why not honor a mariner like Captain James Cook, Roald Amundsen, or James Clark Ross. It seems that an explorer of the Arctic or Antarctic oceans would be a good choice for a robotic explorer of the frigid lakes of Titan. Or maybe even a ship's name? Perhaps the Fram, or even the Titan Challenger, to honor that historic 19th century oceanographic voyage.

I agree ! And I'd add soma other names to the list : Jean-Baptiste Charcot or his ship "Pourquoi-pas ?" ("why not ?" in english), or Jules Dumont d'Urville or his ship "L'Astrolabe"...