Soviet Lunar Images Options

[David]

Although the name Columbia certainly refers to America (symbolized by 'the goddess Columbia', a woman dressed in star-spangles), the direct reference is probably to the Columbia of Robert Gray, which explored the Pacific Northwest in the 1790s (and after which the Columbia river, and, indirectly, British Columbia are named).
The other shuttles except for Atlantis are also named after ships of exploration; the HMS Discovery and HMS Endeavour were among the ships of Captain James Cook's expeditions; the HMS Challenger was a British marine research vessel of the 1870s. The Atlantis is named after a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute research ship of the early 20th century.
The program names "Mercury, Gemini, Apollo" are more or less random mythological or astronomical names (and except for Gemini, not very well chosen).
The call signs for the Apollo 9 CSM and LEM (Gumdrop, Spider) were references to the shapes of the craft, one conical, one many-legged.
The call signs for the Apollo 10 CSM and LEM (Charlie Brown, Snoopy) were popular culture references to Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts.
The Apollo 11 Columbia CSM presumably has the same origin for its name as the Shuttle Columbia. The LEM Eagle is a reference to the American national symbol, and so intended as 'patriotic'.
"Yankee Clipper" (the Apollo 12 CSM) perhaps refers to the PanAm flying boat, if not to actual New England clipper ships. The "Intrepid" LEM probably takes its name from the WWII carrier, and so is a more martial name than the others.
The Apollo 13 CSM "Odyssey" may owe its name to the Kubrick/Clarke movie. The "Aquarius" LEM seems to have been another random astronomical reference, though it probably reminded people of the "Age of Aquarius".
The "Kitty Hawk" CSM of Apollo 14 of course suggests the place where the Wrights flew their first "Flyer", but was also the name of an important aircraft carrier. The LEM "Antares" is apparently another random astronomical reference.
The Apollo 15 CSM "Endeavour" has the same referent as the shuttle. The LEM "Falcon" is named after the Air Force Academy mascot.
The Apollo 16 CSM "Casper" takes its name from the "friendly ghost" of the comic books. There may be some NASA in-joke here I don't get. The LEM "Orion" is another random astronomical reference.
The Apollo 17 CSM "America" of course refers to America, but also the aircraft carrier America and (perhaps) the famous racing yacht. The LEM "Challenger" has the same referent as the Shuttle.
This gives us the following classes of names used by American manned space vessels:
Ships of Exploration: Columbia, Endeavour, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis
Ships of War: Intrepid, Kitty Hawk, America
Other patriotic/martial: Eagle, Falcon, perhaps Yankee Clipper
Astronomy: Aquarius, Antares, Orion
Pop Culture: Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Odyssey, Casper
Other: Gumdrop, Spider

I don't recall all the names given to unmanned American probes. They seem mostly to have been intended to suggest themes of travel: Mariner, Pioneer, Viking, Magellan; although of late they have become descriptive and (if I may say so) pedestrian, tending towards "alphabet soup": MER, MRO, MGS, etc. There are also the probes named after early scientists (Galileo, Cassini). The "inspirational" names Spirit and Opportunity are perfectly serviceable but jejune (at least in America, where they are stock words in political speeches).

[Edited: Updated with information from elsewhere in this thread. Thanks to mcaplinger and dvandorn.]

[dvandorn]

I dunno, Bruce, there are several other Apollo-era nicknames that are unabashedly patriotic -- Kitty Hawk (Apollo 14 CSM), Yankee Clipper (Apollo 12 CSM), and of course America herself (Apollo 17 CSM). One might argue that Falcon (Apollo 15 LM) was a patriotic name, as Dave Scott named it after the mascot of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

-the other Doug

[mcaplinger]

I do not know what the Atlantis is supposed to refer to; it has been used for American and British vessels of no very great historical significance.

From http://www1.jsc.nasa.gov/jscfeatures/articles/000000415.html

"Atlantis was named after the primary research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts from 1930 to 1966. The two-masted, 460-ton ketch was the first U.S. vessel to be used for oceanographic research."

I have heard, though I can't prove this, that one of the people on the naming committee was associated with WHOI and got this name selected. I think it's fair to say that it doesn't have as much historical significance as a lot of others they could have picked.

[edstrick]

We should also remember the one and only Gemini spacecraft to have a name, even if it (I think) wasn't painted on anywhere: "Molly Brown"... the Unsinkable Gemini 3, so named by Grissom after his Mercury flight debacle.

The "Suits" were more than not impressed. They banned the use of flight names till Apollo 9 needed call signs so Houston could talk to one or the other spacecraft.

[Bob Shaw]

'Columbiad' = 'Columbia'?

Bob Shaw

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Frank Borman wanted to name Apollo 8 "Columbiad", in honor of Jules Verne's circumlunar ship, but NASA nixed it. (The Gemini 4 crew wanted to name theirs "The American Eagle" -- now, THERE'S chauvinism, not to mention lack of imagination -- while the Gemini 5 crew wanted to name theirs "Lady Bird" (Conrad's idea, no doubt).

[dvandorn]

Mike Collins comments on the process by which the Apollo 11 CSM was named "Columbia." It seems that Columbia and Eagle, as a set, was suggested by someone *not* on the crew fairly early on in the training cycle. Collins liked the idea of Columbia for several reasons -- for one, it was *almost* the name given to the country (there was some lively debate back in 1776 between naming the country simply "America," "The United States of America," "The United States of Columbia," or simply "Columbia"). There was also the Jules Verne reference, though Collins considered that minor (after all, in Verne's book, the spacecraft wasn't named Columbiad, the *gun* was).

What Collins liked the most about the name was the fact that the song lyric "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" kept popping into his mind -- and since their CM was supposed to end its operational life as a ship in the ocean (if a poor one), he felt the name boded well for a successful (and survivable) mission.

-the other Doug

[JTN]

Thanks, Phil, and Bruce -- this has been bugging me for years!

The spacecraft we call Luna 1 was not called that when it was launched.  It was just called 'The Cosmic Rocket', and nicknamed Mechta - 'dream' - reflecting in a common Russian style the romantic notion that space flight, or flights to the Moon, were an ancient dream of humanity, only now being fulfilled.  When the first maps of the far side were drawn up in the Soviet Union, a dark smudge on the limb near the central far side was called 'More Mechta' - the Sea of Mechta, a commemoration of the flight of Luna 1.  In the west it was often translated 'Sea of Dreams' - which omits the reference to Luna 1 - but the name is singular, not plural.  Sea of Dreams is a mistake, and latin translations of 'Sea of Dreams' only make it worse.

So, a bit like the "Muses Sea"? And "Mare Desiderii" is doubly unreal. (I've often thought it would be a good setting for a work of fiction, like St Matthew's College, Cambridge, and this info just reinforces that.)

[ljk4-1]

Anyone wanting to know the origin of most NASA spacecraft names (at least through 1976) can find them in the online document Origins of NASA Names here:

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4402/SP-4402.htm

Interesting tidbits: Ranger came from JPL planning director C. D. Cummings in 1960 after he noticed the name Ranger on his pick-up truck during a camping trip.

Two early ideas for names of what would become the Explorer series of satellites were Project Deal and Top Kick. Oy.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Well, the first name for a proposed US artificial satellite project was MOUSE.

[Bob Shaw]

Well, the first name for a proposed US artificial satellite project was MOUSE.

M inimum
O rbit
U nmanned
S atellite
E xperiment

Bob Shaw

[dvandorn]

Yes -- and the U.S. Air Force's man-in-space program (which was canceled when NASA was given complete control over American manned spaceflight) was called MISS -- Man In Space Soonest.

The MISS capsule designs looked an *awful* lot like what ended up flying as Mercury...

-the other Doug

[ljk4-1]

Dust cloud produced by Luna 5 impacting the lunar surface:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntr..._1979073878.pdf

[Phil Stooke]

I can provide more information on the Luna 5 event.

A series of low quality images from the East German observations was published in New Scientist shortly after the event - I don't have the actual reference for that, maybe someone can track it down.

This dust cloud was located near Pitatus crater south of Mare Nubium. Luna 5 itself crashed near Lansberg crater, close to the equator. The Pitatus event was caused by the upper stage which propelled Luna 5 to the moon.

Controversy has always surrounded observations like this. Luna 2 and Luna 7 impacts may also have been observed (see Sky & Telescope just after Luna 2 for a description of that, but again I don't have a reference in front of me). No US impacts were ever observed despite repeated efforts, so US sources tended to discount these reports (though the Luna 7 report is from a US source, not the Soviets). Only Hiten, the Japanese mission, is unequivocally known to have been observed from Earth.

Phil

[ljk4-1]

Bleeps from Luna 3?

http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/radioind/Luna3b...Luna3beeps.html


Luna 3 - the first view of the Moon's far side

http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/luna3/Luna3story.html