When the the world clock was established and Greenwich England became time zero, A point in the Celestial sphere above Greenwich England was chosen. What was chosen? The Star Aries in the Constellation Aries and it became known as the first point of Aries.
Why would NASA pick a WAR symbology rather than an astronomical sign? No classically trained Rocket engineers? Yup, in my opinion!!!
Who the hell wants to name a rocket after a *goat*?
In 1995, Robert Zubrin wrote a paper on the most cost effective way to get to Mars http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1996QB641.Z83....... He postulated a shuttle derived rocket, with Space shuttle Main engines on the bottom, and a payload fairing on the top. He called the craft Ares for the Greek name for the planet Mars. The current Ares V design is not much different from Dr. Zubrin's original concept.