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MSL Naming?
nprev
post Dec 25 2006, 12:15 AM
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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). smile.gif

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?


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Bob Shaw
post Dec 25 2006, 12:27 AM
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QUOTE (nprev @ Dec 25 2006, 12:15 AM) *
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). smile.gif

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?


Antoniadi?

Lowell?

Burroughs?

In order of credibility...

Bob Shaw


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nprev
post Dec 25 2006, 12:37 AM
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You forgot Heinlein (Red Planet)! biggrin.gif Come to that, how about "Willis"?


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Bob Shaw
post Dec 25 2006, 12:45 AM
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QUOTE (nprev @ Dec 25 2006, 12:37 AM) *
You forgot Heinlein (Red Planet)! biggrin.gif Come to that, how about "Willis"?


I'd go for 'Willis' any day, but 'he' came from fiction, rather than (alleged) fact!

And as for Stanley G Weinbaum...

Bob Shaw


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post Dec 25 2006, 12:52 AM
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Yeah...if we ever send another pair of rovers, I'd definitely go for Willis & Tweel. If nothing else, some of the kids might rediscover the magic in these classics...it makes a difference.


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edstrick
post Dec 25 2006, 08:17 AM
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Tars Tarkas and Deja Thoris.
And there's always good <?> old Ras Thavas, the Mastermind of Mars.
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tty
post Dec 25 2006, 04:49 PM
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How come nobody has even mentioned Schiaparelli?

Also in the name of political correctness shouldn't we use the native pronounciation of Tweel which was actualy "Trrrweeerrlll"?

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post Dec 25 2006, 08:05 PM
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Oh, great; if we do that, then we'll have to figure out Willis' true name in High Martian! tongue.gif


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post Dec 25 2006, 08:57 PM
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QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Dec 25 2006, 01:27 AM) *
Antoniadi?

Lowell?

Burroughs?

In order of credibility...

Bob Shaw

Bob, you forget a question mark after the last name! Does it mean that he is your favorite? biggrin.gif biggrin.gif biggrin.gif


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Bob Shaw
post Dec 25 2006, 10:15 PM
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QUOTE (climber @ Dec 25 2006, 08:57 PM) *
Bob, you forget a question mark after the last name! Does it mean that he is your favorite? biggrin.gif biggrin.gif biggrin.gif


Unquestionably!

Bob Shaw


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dvandorn
post Dec 26 2006, 03:14 AM
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Since MSL will travel faster than the MERs and Sojourner (if only marginally), it will be the fastest moving thing on Mars.

So, why not call it Bottomos?

biggrin.gif biggrin.gif

-the other Doug

p.s. -- if someone could name the short story from which my reference comes, I'd love the reminder. I remember the piece clearly, but have not the slightest remnant of the title or author left in this rotten gray thing I call a brain... *sigh*...


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Bob Shaw
post Dec 26 2006, 05:17 PM
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QUOTE (dvandorn @ Dec 26 2006, 03:14 AM) *
Since MSL will travel faster than the MERs and Sojourner (if only marginally), it will be the fastest moving thing on Mars.

So, why not call it Bottomos?

biggrin.gif biggrin.gif

-the other Doug

p.s. -- if someone could name the short story from which my reference comes, I'd love the reminder. I remember the piece clearly, but have not the slightest remnant of the title or author left in this rotten gray thing I call a brain... *sigh*...


oDoug:

"The Holes Around Mars" by Jerome Bixby.

I was never really sure about a moon called 'Bottomos' - sounds more like a feature to be associated with the eighth planet...

Bob Shaw


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SteveM
post Dec 27 2006, 01:33 AM
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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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nprev
post Dec 27 2006, 01:58 AM
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QUOTE (Steve @ Dec 26 2006, 05:33 PM) *
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


huh.gif 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.


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JonClarke
post Dec 27 2006, 07:18 AM
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QUOTE (nprev @ Dec 27 2006, 01:58 AM) *
huh.gif 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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