Posted on 09/06/2001 9:54:36 AM PDT by Physicist
Name that telescope and win a prize
Space Shorts: NASA solicits suggestions for SIRTF’s new title
Sept. 3 — NASA is asking Earthlings to find a friendly name for a new space-based observatory that will allow scientists to search for new planets at the farthest reaches of the universe. The observatory, due to be launched in the summer of 2002, is currently called the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, or SIRTF.
“WE ARE HOPING to tap the creativity of the public to find a name suitable for this important mission that will help enrich our knowledge of the universe,” said Doris Daou, an education and outreach spokeswoman for the mission, which is being managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Members of the public have previously dreamed up the names for the Hubble Space Telescope (named after astronomer Edwin Hubble), the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (named after astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar) and the Sojourner rover used in the Mars Pathfinder mission (named after Sojourner Truth, a black abolitionist and advocate of women’s rights).
The SIRTF will allow scientists to study objects by looking for the heat they radiate in the infrared wavelength and will search for dusty discs around other stars where planets might be forming.
The deadline for nominations is Dec. 20 and must be accompanied by a short essay explaining the reasons behind the suggested name. If the name of a person is proposed, the person must be deceased.
The grand-prize winner will be flown to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the telescope’s launch. More details are available via the contest’s Web site.
Or the Carlidoscope? Heh.
Better the Feynman scope than the Sagan scope.
Yes, the European Space Agency named their x-ray telescope after Newton.
Of all the things NASA does these days, it's the space telescopes that are paying off in terms of increasing human knowledge. I just read yesterday that the Chandra mission is being extended from five years to ten years because of the great results in the first two years.
Make sure it's written big on the side so we will know it's name.
At launch, NASA can unveil a giant banner that reads "ZOOM!!!"
The Clymer Climber.
I have mixed feelings about these budgetary games. NASA knows that the scopes are going to last for at least a decade, but they only plan a 3 year "mission" for a billion dollar scope to keep the budget down and win project approval from Congress. This is OK because it means that more scopes get funded. But the failure to build in the long-term funding means that expensive projects that are still producing good data (like a few of the recent planetary probes) get shut down to save a few million dollars. Dumb Dumb Dumb...
That would be counterproductive. They're raising the price of Budweiser.
How about Hoyle? Though it does rhyme a bit too well with Hubble. I like the FIRST moniker someone came up with earlier, really...
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