SMART-1 Apollo 11 release Options

[volcanopele]

The SMART-1 team has released an image of the Apollo 11 landing site:

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM1O6BUQPE_index_1.html

for the 37th anniversary of the landing. In the release, they label two craters as Aldrin and Collins, with a mention of a third crater, Armstrong, off frame. It is my understanding that one has to be deceased in order for surface features on other worlds to be named after you...

[mcaplinger]

It is my understanding that one has to be deceased in order for surface features on other worlds to be named after you...

These names were approved by the IAU in 1970. They either didn't have that rule at the time or (more likely) made an exception in this case.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

These names were approved by the IAU in 1970. They either didn't have that rule at the time or (more likely) made an exception in this case.

From Wikipedia:

[Giambattista] Riccioli's naming scheme was formally established as the doctrinal lunar nomenclature by a vote of the IAU in 1935, which gave standard names to 600 lunar features.

The system was later expanded and updated by the IAU during the 1960s, but the new designations were limited to the names of deceased scientists. After Soviet spacecraft photographed the far side of the Moon, many of the newly-discovered features were named after Soviet scientists and engineers. All subsequent names have been assigned by the IAU, although were assigned to still-living individuals, such as astronauts in Project Apollo.