Name the Rover! · 9:00pm Jan 21st, 2020
As we head into 2020, Opportunity may have earned his retirement in Ponyland, but a new challenger rises. Later this year, a new Mars Rover will head towards the red planet. (Two actually, but ESA has already named their rover Rosalind Franklin.)
But for the longest time, NASA's newest addition to the Mars family has only been called Mars 2020. As we approch the launch date in July this year, Oppy's youngest sibling needs a name.
And for the next week, we all can cast a vote as to what it will be.
The names were suggested by school children, and these are the finalists:
-Vision
-Clarity
-Fortitude
-Courage
-Promise
-Endurance
-Tenacity
-Ingenuity
-Perseverance
(And it's a crying shame that Starlight, which was among the semi-finalists, is not on that list.
)
I will be casting my vote as well, though I have not decided yet which one I'll go for. But I am rather partial to Endurance and Perseverance. As some of you will no doubt remember, Oppy's resting place on Mars is Perseverance Valley on the Western rim of Endurance crater, the latter of which was named for Ernest Shackleton's ship during his antarctic expedition. (All of the craters on Oppy's route were named after famous ships of exploration.)
Since this will be the first new rover to land on Mars after the end of the MER-B mission, it feels right to me to pick a name that basically says: "Oppy's journey was epic, breaking records and broadening our understanding of not just Mars, but Earth as well, left and right. And I'm here to pick up where he left off."
What do you guys think? Which name would you pick for Oppy's successor? Do you like any of the ones that are being considered? Or would you name the rover something else entirely? Let me know in the comments.
All the long-lived names feel like they're setting up a bit of cosmic irony. I'm siding with Vision.
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It's a decent name. But when I saw it on the list, all I could think was: "Oh, come on! If you put the name of a Marvel character on there, you could have also given us Starlight as an option!"
So, I'm calling it now. Hasbro and MLP are probably safe for a couple of years, but Disney is about to buy NASA.
(Which is much less of a joke than it should be, considering how closely NASA and Disney worked together during the Space Race.)
Oppurtunity II. The Second Coming.
Nah, I like Vision. I also like not sending rovers and sending people soonest.
I'll bite on the hopeful pun.
"We made a Promise to visit Mars."
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Well, considering how Shackleton's Endurance ended up, it wouldn't really be a name cursed with optimism. That would be my vote.
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I dunno. I consider that voyage to be a remarkably uplifting tale. Sure, the ship sank. What's incredible is that the entire crew made it back alive. Probably the most successful failure in history.
I like your thought about Perseverence and Endurance,
though I'm partial to Promise or Ingenuity for its name considering its mission. Promise would be a great name for its sample collection mission as it could be seen as a promise to return for those collections. Ingenuity could be a nice "sister" name for Curiosity though
Has anyone else here been watching the livestream of its construction?
Perseverence is my pick, for Oppurtunity
I like some of the others, but I think we all can agree on this, Oppurtunity shall rest in peace knowing he did great
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Hm, I hadn't considered Promise to be a good fit for the naming convention so far. But you're right, if you consider the mission objectives, it becomes a lot more appropriate. For the same reason, Ingenuity also can refer to the Mars Helicopter Scout, which will hopefully be the first powered flight in another planet's atmosphere.
You mean this livestream which currently features an empty cleanroom?
I was gonna embed it into the blog post until I saw ... well, that.
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Now to be fair it was in the middle of the floor this morning xD
I think it's currently to the left side of the camera just off screen. We'll probably see it again soon enough :3
Considering the name of the Primarch Mortarion's Gloriana-class battleship is Endurance I'm partial to that name, but I'm also taken by Perseverance. I think Furious Abyss or Vengeful Spirit would be too...grim dark.
I see we've all learned from the Boaty McBoatface Incident...
The problem with calling a Mars Rover, Endurance, unless its pretty much identical to Curiosity, with all its operating time faults, bugs and tweaks ajusted for to actually make it more reliable, its a totally new even more cost cut system built out of newer even more cost cut technology.
I seem to reemember that Curiosity rebooted at least twice during Mars atmosphere entry, did they find out if it was due to exact conditions, or was random occurance, and so plotted out what would happen in each per second slot if or more likely when the same events occured?
Im going to have to go with Courage, cos the poor sods being thrown out there on the cheapest build, short cuts, with no back up or local support.
Billions of dollars for the Webb, and they cant fork for a couple hundred million for dedicated hundred metre Ln Network dishes and equipment
I’d go with Clarity.
Names like Perseverance and Endurance, don’t really fit a mars rover I feel. They would be more fitting for something who’s goal is to explore the far reaches of space, like a deep space probe.
So that leaves Vision and Clarity. Both seem fitting, but Clarity more so when considering the mission goal. The goal of the mission is to perform more detailed studies on Mars habitability, so the rover is clarifying whether Mars is habitable. Vision would be more fitting for something’s who’s goal is to document new areas.
Rambling Wreck
Conquistador
Invader
Inquisitive
Indefatigable
The Pantechnicon
That Damn Robot!
The Little Old Rover from Pasadena
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Opportunity 2: Electric boogaloo~
In all honesty though, Promise.
Simple because it's a promise that we'll continue what Oppy started, even as Promise itself fails, and as the engineers who built them die, we will STILL continue moving forward.
5190442 The problem is, if the Great Galactic Ghoul strikes before it's safe on the ground...
... that will make it a broken Promise.
Of the options available, I prefer Ingenuity, but I'm not particularly fond of any of them. Half of them have unfortunate associations, and half of 'em (Courage?) don't belong on a robot, at least not until we develop self-aware AI.