Name NASA's Next Mars Rover!

Building NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover



Name NASA's Next Mars Rover!



My suggestion: Rovy McRoverface. However, NASA isn't so stupid as to allow easy, anonymous voting. It's for school kids and they need to register.

Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/...you-get-when-you-let-the-internet-decide.html

A proposal by a British government agency to let the Internet suggest a name for a $287 million polar research ship probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now, the agency is the latest group to see what happens when web users are asked to unleash their creative energy: R.R.S. Boaty McBoatface is a clear front-runner.

People quickly disregarded the more dignified names suggested by the Natural Environment Research Council — Shackleton, Endeavour, Falcon. Instead the contest became the latest in the Internet’s long, storied history to end up with social media users gleefully offering ridiculous names to government-funded projects.

RED ROVER

KILTED COWBOY said:

RED ROVER

Click to expand...

That'll be the Chinese one.

1”=2.54cm

Crawly McCrawlface

One Red Hen...

Huxter, that looks like 3 red hens.

LadyBug

I hope they explicitly exclude anything resembling <thing>y Mc<thing>face or any approximation thereof.

According to Wikipedia, past US Mars rovers have been named MARS 2, MARS 3, Sojourner (part of the Mars Pathfinder mission), Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity. Some other names in that vein could be Searcher, Explorer, or reuse of shuttle names like Discovery and Endeavor.

Just as Pathfinder's base was renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and space telescopes have been named for notable astronomers and scientists, a rover could be named Hawking, Brahe, Ptolemy, Copernicus, or some such.

Since a rover is intended to investigate and to solve the mysteries of the planet, Holmes might be good, but I'd rather that wait for a dual mission (like Spirit and Opportunity) called Holmes and Watson.

For whimsy, one could use a stereotypical dog's name like, well, Rover. Or Spot, or Lassie, or some such.

Wheely McWheels
Sandcrawler
Gravedigger
Johnny Six
Marvin

M'eh. I'm just in it for participation points.

I kinda like Bob.

Lightning McQueen.

KILTED COWBOY said:

RED ROVER

Click to expand...

MSL has already been called that in a few places. This one comes to mind for me:


It is written by one of the developers of the ChemCam instrument. I have a signed copy I picked up at a spectroscopy conference a couple of years back.

K-9

Thrusty McThrustFace - Level 2 Cert Attempt ("Don't let the Internet name things.")