MSL FAQ - The pool of questions Options

[djellison]

Rob Manning and I swopped emails last night - and we think it might make sense to pool all the questions people have about MSL (and specifically MSL's EDL ) into one thread - and then answer as many as make sense either via a Q'n'A in the style of the previous ones I've done with Steve and Jim - or via Rob's typing fingers.

It'll be a few weeks till we sort this out - but submit-away until then

Doug

[PhilHorzempa]

Rob,

There is a thread here at UMSF discussing possible names for MSL. I know
that you have no control over the naming of MSL (isn't that a shame?), and
that someone over in NASA HQ will decide. Here are my questions -

1. Can you let us at UMSF know who that bureaucrat is and how we
can contact him/her?

2. Do you have any favorite name, or names, for MSL?

3. Is there a "pet" name for MSL at JPL?

4. Have you heard other names suggested by JPL engineers?


I know that these are not technical questions, but I still think that they are important.
Names go a long way in helping the public identify with a mission.
Imagine if, instead of Stardust, the comet mission was named Flypaper-1.

Also, I am tired of the "let the school kids name the mission" trend.
I would rather have the project team name the project.
If that isn't allowed, how about opening up a naming program on the Internet,
open to Everyone, including adults and school kids. If you get a million suggestions,
then count your blessings in that amount of public interest. If that happens, pick
a thousand out randomly, have someone read all of those, and pick 10 finalists.
Then let the American Idol crowd vote for their favorite.

Another Phil

[mcaplinger]

2. Do you have any favorite name, or names, for MSL?

3. Is there a "pet" name for MSL at JPL?

4. Have you heard other names suggested by JPL engineers?

I can't speak for Rob or anybody at JPL, but I have never, ever heard any name for the vehicle other than MSL. JPL has never been big on "pretty names" for spacecraft: witness Mariner 9, Viking 2, etc. It's only been fairly recently that names started being used (Galileo and Magellan were the first I recall, obviously when you only have one spacecraft per mission type you can't use a number) and even then, those programs were often referred to as Jupiter Orbiter/Probe and Venus Radar Mapper, respectively. I will always think of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander as the Mars Surveyor 1998 Orbiter and Lander; the names (pretty lame in that case) usually come very late in the process. There are plenty of people who still call Spirit and Opportunity MER-A and MER-B (or MER-2 and MER-1

Sometimes the assembly techs have pet names for spacecraft, but they're not always printable :-)

[MarsEngineer]

I can't speak for Rob or anybody at JPL, but I have never, ever heard any name for the vehicle other than MSL. JPL has never been big on "pretty names" for spacecraft: witness Mariner 9, Viking 2, etc. It's only been fairly recently that names started being used (Galileo and Magellan were the first I recall, obviously when you only have one spacecraft per mission type you can't use a number) and even then, those programs were often referred to as Jupiter Orbiter/Probe and Venus Radar Mapper, respectively. I will always think of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander as the Mars Surveyor 1998 Orbiter and Lander; the names (pretty lame in that case) usually come very late in the process. There are plenty of people who still call Spirit and Opportunity MER-A and MER-B (or MER-2 and MER-1

Sometimes the assembly techs have pet names for spacecraft, but they're not always printable :-)

You are right Mike. For reasons that probably lurk deep in the neuronal structure of us Dilbert-like engineers we find ourselves quickly getting comfortable with TLAs (three letter acronyms). MSL runs off our lips as loquaciously as VCR, EDL, PC and iPhone.

I have to agree that it is odd, but we really did not have special names for the two rovers under construction in ATLO (assembly, test & launch ops) during late 2002 and 2003 other than MER-1 & MER-2. We are a dull lot aren't we?

We did have unique names for some of our hardware that we used in jest. One particular "flight" rover's electronics module (REM) was put through its test paces inside inside a thermal chamber (hot & cold) where we had inadverantly let in ambient (not dry) air after it had been cold. The result was a soaking wet set of very expensive electronics. Forever after we called it the incredible "Aqua REM". This same REM took a turn on (I think) MER-1 / Opportunity and found iteslf getting zapped on an AC outlet by accident. We decided that neither rain nor sleet nor electircal shock would hinder that REM. It worked fine but we still decided it would be best it remained on mother earth. It still lives in the testbed.

When I first started working JPL (as a student electronics draftsman), I worked on what was still called "JOP" or Jupiter Orbiter Probe. It was renamed Gallieo soon just after I arrived around 1980 (it was scheduled to be launched in '83 or '84 by then I think). It took us a while to get used to "Gallieo". Some folks really did not like it, but we got used to it.

Unlike competed missions (like Phoenix which get named by their PIs) these big missions tend to get their final mission names relatively close to launch. Even Spitzer was SIRTF (Spaceborn InfraRed Telecscope Facility) prior to launch. I do not know the reason but I think it has to do with "reality". Even up to the weeks before launch there is some (low) probability that these machines will not be launched. Once the are really really going to launch, then a final name is selected.

-Rob

[climber]

When I first started working JPL (as a student electronics draftsman), I worked on what was still called "JOP" or Jupiter Orbiter Probe. It was renamed Gallieo soon just after I arrived around 1980 (it was scheduled to be launched in '83 or '84 by then I think). It took us a while to get used to "Gallieo". Some folks really did not like it, but we got used to it.
-Rob

I like this one Rob, you're still NOT used to it . It was called GALILEO and not Gallieo