July 9, 2008: Constellation Program

[spudcon]

Great. Now they're gonna start NASCAR on the moon!

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by spudcon

Great. Now they're gonna start NASCAR on the moon!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Please, no.

[Imigo Jones]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

You've probably also heard, their new mandate is to go back to the moon by 2020. This has been named the Constellation Program.

I continue to be disturbed by certain issues of nomenclature:

". . . the Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the moon, and then onward to Mars and other destinations in the solar system." Why is this program named after a grouping of stars, when the program is staying within the solar system?

The launch vehicles (rockets) are named Ares, the Greek name for Mars, which is a planet, fine.

The crew vehicle (space capsule, not the SUV) is named Orion, which is a constellation but still has nothing to do with the Moon or the rest of our solar system.



Not 1950s sci-fi art but NASA artist's rendering of the lunar lander.

The lunar lander is named Altair, which is the name of the biggest star in the constellation Aquila, the eagle. Hey, there's at least a connection with Neil Armstrong's lunar lander, the Eagle. . . . [Later] Oh, I see the lander page explains that.

In surfing that quadrant of the NASA site, I saw various lunar rovers called NASA Concept Vehicle (pic 1 in Bruce’s OP), Crew Mobility Chassis Prototype (pic 2), and Crew Exploration Vehicle—blah.

To summarize: Here's a mission to the Moon, first, then elsewhere in the solar system. The names currently refer to a type of star grouping, a planet, a particular constellation, a star in a different constellation, and just some working titles. Where's any consistency?

NASA should rename everything to focus on the lunar mission. When the time comes, they can name further stuff after Mars and Jupiter, but it doesn't make any sense at any time to go outside the solar system for names for spaceships and such, when there are plenty of great names closer to Earth:

Program: the Soleil Moon Frye Program (= solar system in general + Moon in particular + common east Asian pronunciation of "fly")

Launch vehicle: the Keith Moon

Crew vehicle: the Ban Ki-moon

Lunar lander: the Moon Landrieu

Crew Exploration Vehicle: the Moon Unit Zappa

Constellation Program Office (Johnson Space Center, Houston): Marion Moon Aldrin Domestic Engineering Center