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Martian Naming Madness
Macblaster writes "With the rise of robotic exploration of Mars, scientists are having difficulty naming all the new features they're discovering. Accepted name lists have fallen by the wayside, and now scientifically important features are named after everything from 80's bands to romantic interests." From the article: "Like European explorers who named the New World after their homes in the Old, the Mars scientists have filled the strange landscape of the Red Planet with a mishmash of modern life on Earth. The twin rover missions have forced scientists to come up with more than 4,000 names to mark everything from the majestic Columbia Hills to a few pebbles in the sand. The result is an extravagantly labeled map punctuated by the scientists' ever-changing preoccupations with history, holidays, monkeys, ice cream, cartoon characters, sushi, Mayan words, Scandinavian fish delicacies ... the list goes on and on."
They did. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spiri t/20041104a.html.
i t/20041104a/04-RA-04-Lutefisk-A298R1_br.jpg
Here is a direct link to the image http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spir
I'm not even American, and I take grave offence at your comments. Kalpana Chawla, Rick Husband, William McCool and their colleagues were astronauts who were killed when Columbia burned and broke up on re-entry (You know, Columbia, the space shuttle).
Whilst naming after not-very-dead-yet people seems to be in conflict with international protocol, I can't think of too many more appropriate names for a group of significant landmarks. Those folks died exploring, doing *exactly* what the Mars missions are about. I'm pleased and proud to hear that significant landmarks on Mars have been named after them.
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This is not serious at all. The names are without a doubt temporary used by the NASA employees for charting. Its quite a bit easier to remember something that sounds completely retarded compared to a couple numbers and letters.