Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!ucbvax!space From: mcgeer%ji@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU (Rick McGeer) Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Re: nameing Uranian moons after the Challanger-seven Message-ID: <8601301837.AA25844@ji.berkeley.edu> Date: Thu, 30-Jan-86 13:37:30 EST Article-I.D.: ji.8601301837.AA25844 Posted: Thu Jan 30 13:37:30 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 1-Feb-86 06:49:50 EST Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 63 >Date: 1986 January 30 01:38:50 PST (=GMT-8hr) >From: Robert Elton Maas (this host known locally only) >To: SPACE@mc.lcs.mit.edu >Subject: nameing Uranian moons after the Challanger-seven >Sender: REM%IMSSS@su-score.arpa (for undeliverable-mail notifications) >Reply-To: REM%IMSSS@su-score.arpa > >It was suggested today that seven of the Uranian moons discovered this >month by Voyager 2 be named after the astronauts & technicians & >passenger who died on the shuttle this week. Some obvious questions/problems: > >First names or last names? Last. > >Actual (English) names or greek translations of them? Actual. > >Since we haven't staked claim on these moons, what right have we to >name them after citizens of our nation? All the other moons have been >named after greek mythological beings affiliated in myth with the >parent body. Do we want to start naming moons after real humans of the >nation that discovered them? Craters on the Moon discovered by >spacecraft follow the real-human naming convention in some cases, but >there's a mixture of discoveries from USA and USSR craft thus we >accept each other's names. Would the USSR and other nations accept our >breaking from tradition on naming moons of other planets? By longstanding tradition, dating back to Galileo, the discoverer of celestial bodies has the right to name them. I can't imagine that anyone with any decency would either question our right to do so nor the appropriateness of the memorial. > >Why not name three more after Grissom/Chaffe/White, or after Russian >cosmonauts who have died? Internally, NASA refers to three stars by the nicknames of Grissom, Chaffe and White. The Russians may have named some of their discoveries after their lost cosmonauts; I don't know. Does anybody? > >Wouldn't it be sort of a slap in somebody's face to name the seven who >died in the worst attempted-human-space-travel accident to date after >moons that were discovered by the most successful >unmanned-space-discovery mission to date, at a time when the contrast >between these two missions is used by some people to argue that manned >exploration should be totally stopped and everything should be done by >robotics? No, I don't think so. The Challenger Seven died as pioneers crossing a new frontier; like all pioneers, they expected others to follow. I think that naming (or renaming) some Lunar craters for them would be more appropriate: that way, the time when we'll be able to erect a plaque in their memory in the object named for them is in the not-too-distant future. I'd like the schoolchidren of Moonbase to be able to take a field trip to McAuliffe Crater, and read about the woman who dreamed of teaching children to reach for the stars... Requiscet in Pacem. And may the Perpetual Light shine upon them. Rick.