MSL Naming? |
MSL Naming? |
Dec 25 2006, 12:15 AM
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#1
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Anybody know if there's to be a naming of names for MSL? If so, I'd just like to propose an unimpeachable candidate moniker: Sagan (Carl to his friends).
I know that the MPF lander was named in his honor, but for some reason the name never stuck with the public in the same way that Sojourner, Spirit, and Opportunity did; perhaps we tend to anthropomorphize rovers more than fixed landers. In that light, MSL will hopefully spend many years exploring Mars much as Sagan did; what could be more fitting? -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Dec 27 2006, 01:33 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 267 Joined: 5-February 06 Member No.: 675 |
Off hand, I imagine NASA will follow past patterns of planetary vehicles and give MSL a generally descriptive and symbolic name (like MER-A/Spirit; MER-B/Opportunity).
There is a pattern of naming space observatories after modern astronomers: Hubble (optical), Chandra (x-ray), Spitzer (IR), Compton (gamma ray), and (with ESA) Herschel (far IR). The only planetary vehicles named after people are named after historic scientific figures or explorers: Galileo, Cassini-Huygens, Magellan. If this pattern holds, "Sagan" is out of the running for MSL. Steve |
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Dec 27 2006, 01:58 AM
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#3
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
The only planetary vehicles named after people are named after historic scientific figures or explorers: Galileo, Cassini-Huygens, Magellan. If this pattern holds, "Sagan" is out of the running for MSL. Steve How so, Steve? Sagan was more than a popularizer, he did some very fundamental work in planetary science. Arguably, he was one of the true pioneers in the field after Bruce Murray, and although this is recent history it is history nonetheless. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Dec 27 2006, 07:18 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 112 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Canberra Member No.: 558 |
How so, Steve? Sagan was more than a popularizer, he did some very fundamental work in planetary science. Arguably, he was one of the true pioneers in the field after Bruce Murray, and although this is recent history it is history nonetheless. However there is already a Sagan memorial station on Mars, so naming MSL after him might be overkill. I nominate Bagnold. Ralph Bagnold was a remarkable man, a pioneer in the use of vehicles in desert exploration in the 20's and 30's, inventor of several useful gadgets for mechanised desert exploration and travel. DuringWWII he founded the Long Range Desert Group, a formidable military unit that specialised in deep penetration special operations in North Africa. Bagnold also did almost all the fundamental research on aeolian geomorphology, sedimentology and physics and wrote scores of papers. His last paper, coauthored with Carol Sagan, was on the sand dunes of Mars. Bagnold, desert traveller, explorer, and scientist, and Mars researcher, seems an eminently suitable name for a Mars rover. Jon |
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Dec 27 2006, 04:50 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2173 Joined: 28-December 04 From: Florida, USA Member No.: 132 |
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