NASA Wants Help In Naming A Space Station Node

[dmccoy1693]

As for the rest, if you don't like my tone, talk to the mods.

I did. First thing after reading your post. I have no interest in personal attacks feel no need to respond to them, not when someone else has the power to suspend someone for doing that.

 

[MongooseMatt]

And he's gone. . .

 

[saundby]

Back to the OT, it's interesting to see who's gaming the results on this:

Top Ten Suggestions/Likely Instigators
COLBERT/Colbert watchers
MYYEARBOOK/ Dunno--some online community?
GAIA/ Gaia online folks?
XENU/Scientologists
SOCIALVIBE/ Dunno--another online community?
BUDDY/ ?
TRANQUILITY/ Space enthusiasts?
UBUNTU/ Linux users
SYNERGY/ Dunno. Larry Fast fans?
VISION/ Dunno, George H. W. Bush fans?

Maybe someone can fill in some of the question marks here.

 

[BP]

MYYEARBOOK/ Dunno--some online community?

Hmmm, sounds like NASA may need some spam filters :shock:

Then again they let COLBERT thru

 

[Jame Rowe]

I might just vote "Colbert."

If I vote at all.

 

[AndrewW]

NASA will post online nine names that are finalists for the agency's Mars Science Laboratory mission and invite the public to vote for its favorite. The non-binding poll to help NASA select a name opens online Monday, March 23, and will accept votes through March 29.

Another chance. Not that Traveller is likely to be one of the 9 you can choose from. But who knows.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi,

I don't know if this is true, but this link http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10202403-36.html suggests that the name Colbert may have won.

Regards

PF

 

[AndrewW]

Hi,

I don't know if this is true, but this link http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10202403-36.html suggests that the name Colbert may have won.

Regards

PF

Yeah, looking that way. What will happen though isn't yet known.

 

[EDG]

Yeah, looking that way. What will happen though isn't yet known.

If he managed to pull in 230,000 voters who otherwise wouldn't have cared a jot about the space station, they darn well ought to name it after him.

 

[AndrewW]

Yeah, looking that way. What will happen though isn't yet known.

If he managed to pull in 230,000 voters who otherwise wouldn't have cared a jot about the space station, they darn well ought to name it after him.

Not like they care now. Cast their vote and forget about it.

 

[GamerDude]

Hey, whatever it's called at least NASA tried to get public input.

Which is nice since it's our tax dollars they are spending.

 

[EDG]

Not like they care now. Cast their vote and forget about it.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. NASA also does things like let people stick their names on a CD going off on a spaceprobe, and that sort of thing tends to stick. Heck, if they did name the node after Colbert then at least the folks that voted for it can say "hey, I contributed to naming something on the spacestation", which is better than not having any reason to think about the station at all.

 

[AndrewW]

Not like they care now. Cast their vote and forget about it.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. NASA also does things like let people stick their names on a CD going off on a spaceprobe, and that sort of thing tends to stick. Heck, if they did name the node after Colbert then at least the folks that voted for it can say "hey, I contributed to naming something on the spacestation", which is better than not having any reason to think about the station at all.

Yup, been several missions that have carried names into space. Though more along the lines of out of sight out of mind I think in terms of the getting the general public interest through this particular naming contest.

 

[EDG]

Yup, been several missions that have carried names into space. Though more along the lines of out of sight out of mind I think in terms of the getting the general public interest through this particular naming contest.

Do you really think that a space station that's passing by regularly overhead (as a really bright star) is more "out of sight, out of mind" than a probe that doesn't get to its destination til months (or even years?) after its launch? Heck, I put my name on a lot of those CDs and I don't remember where it is now . I'm pretty sure it's on Titan's surface, and possibly a couple of metal-strewn impact craters on Mars .

 

[AndrewW]

Yup, been several missions that have carried names into space. Though more along the lines of out of sight out of mind I think in terms of the getting the general public interest through this particular naming contest.

Do you really think that a space station that's passing by regularly overhead (as a really bright star) is more "out of sight, out of mind" than a probe that doesn't get to its destination til months (or even years?) after its launch? Heck, I put my name on a lot of those CDs and I don't remember where it is now . I'm pretty sure it's on Titan's surface, and possibly a couple of metal-strewn impact craters on Mars .

If it's on Titan that would have been the Huygens probe which was actually done by ESA, carried on a NASA spacecraft though (Cassini).

I wasn't trying to say it was less out of mind then the other missions.

 

[GamerDude]

Heck, if they did name the node after Colbert then at least the folks that voted for it can say "hey, I contributed to naming something on the spacestation", which is better than not having any reason to think about the station at all.

hey, not matter what NASA names the module, at least everyone who voted can say "Hey, I contributed".

I mean, heck, even if you voted for the loosing candidate in your parliamentary elections you did participate yes?

 

[alex_greene]

Okay, but does Mr Colbert really want his name to be attached to a toilet sump and sewage processor? I think he only meant it in jest, and to displace Xenu from off the top of the list of alternative candidates.

Now a Mars probe, or something sent out there to scan for the possibility of intelligent life somewhere in the universe, I'd want my name applied to. But ... an orbiting fresher?

 

[shotgun-toting chipmunk]

Actually, I think Colbert would prefer the toilet sump and sewage processor. He's kinda funny like that.

 

[dmccoy1693]

In case anyone is wondering, the node isn't named Colbert, but Tranquility.

Nasa will instead name a treadmill inside the station Colbert (they turned it into an acronym). The nasa astronaut that announced this on Colbert Report said "Everyday, all the astronauts on the statation are going to have to jump on Colbert." They even made a patch for it. The joke and patch staved off the nerd rage and got Colbert (and his fans) behind it.

 

[EDG]

http://www.space.com/news/090414-colbert-space-station-node.html

With the Node named Tranquility, NASA needed a way to let down Colbert, who encouraged his fans - members of the "Colbert Nation" - to suggest his name instead. True to form, NASA adapted the comedian's surname to be used for the space station's second treadmill, launching in August. Previously referred to simply as Treadmill-2, it has now been retitled as the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT.

I was pretty impressed with MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging - the mission to Mercury, with the double-whammy of Mercury being the "messenger god" so it works on two levels!) but COLBERT's pretty nifty too. Those NASA acronym people are good!