"Space Launch System" needs a better name!

[LN400]

As for childish name suggestions. The one coming up with the name Pluto, for that ex-planet, was a girl 9 years old at the time.

Anyway, we're running out of Greek/Roman gods unless we want to name the rocket after some God of Healthy Bowel Movement. The Greeks and Romans had a myriad of deities but few of them were something you'd associate with huge rockets and exploration. Saturn, Mercury, these names make sense. Titan too. Ares on the other hand is not a name NASA would want to use in peaceful space exploration. Dionysus is right out. We should perhaps look beyond Greek/Roman mythology and Old Norse or Hindu mythology generally don't catch the public's enthusiastic approval to the same degree as Saturn does.

Perhaps have a look at the mythology found in North America. Look around, ask around. Surely there must be some awesome name to be found that can be used.

EDIT: If you think that's far fetched, think about how the military helicopters in the US are named after North American tribes.

Edited June 4, 2015 by LN400

[tater]

I'm happy NASA is getting anything at all. I can think of plenty of things my tax money is being wasted on, but human exploration of space is definitely not one of them.

No, I'd be fine with giving the entire ~2/3 of total federal spending called "programmatic" entirely to NASA.

As it is, with their 0.5% of total spending budget, they need to use every penny the most frugal way possible. Sadly, NASA has little to do with this, as their choices get second guessed by Congress, which gives them money with strings attached (to spend a ton on SLS/Orion because those contractors own the right congress critters).

I was optimistic when younger. I've watched them do nothing cool for decades. I think you will find many older guys who are excited about SpaceX, Blue Origin, etc, think this way because they've given up on NASA after cutting their teeth watching Apollo, then growing up to see virtually nothing come of it (unmanned is another story entirely, kudos to those guys).

Edited June 4, 2015 by tater

[TythosEternal]

It will be a man-rated heavy-lifter, meant to carry lots of stuff, so maybe Man-In-THings-Rated Industrial Lifter (MITHRIL)? I can just see the reactions now over giving Tolkein nerds free mythological reign over a multi-billion dollar program. Still, it worked with Palantir, so maybe there's hope.

[SmallFatFetus]

PAELS: Pointless and expensive launch system

They take so long time with such big cost, than the day it will be ready, spacex will have a similar heavy launcher for much lower cost.

My prediction is that it will be used 5 times top.

Nasa should stop designing rockets or capsules, that money it will be more efficient spent in spacex hands.

Senate Launch System. (It's painfully accurate)

Aside from Space Transportation System, or the aforementioned Delta. Or that a bunch of Soviet rockets started out with only alphanumerics and got names from their payloads (So you get things like East or Union). Japanese rockets still have that problem (HII-A, M-V, etc)

How about the retired SLS? At least that's what I hope it is called once it gets cancelled.

How about "Not launching until 2018 launch system"

MonSuR

(Money Sucking Rocket)

Or perhaps the Corporate Welfare System? More accurate.

i'd call it the SOMB!

the smell of money burning

MJFY- 'Murica Jebus F*** Yea

Crusader: because the US senate loves to put religion over science

The Constituent - because the senators try to spread the funding to their own constituents, to improve their reelection odds.

Propaganda

The Middle finger... because the point is to give the middle finger to Putin/China, no?

Trump - because he loves to put his name on everything, and wants a moonbase... maybe he'll help pay for it

The more naive and inocent kids at schools can think a proper name, i'll just keep on calling it with cynical ones.

My suggestion is Earth Science Budget Sink System

Please stop. I actually want to hear some ideas, not just jokes.

[Robotengineer]

It will be a man-rated heavy-lifter, meant to carry lots of stuff, so maybe Man-In-THings-Rated Industrial Lifter (MITHRIL)? I can just see the reactions now over giving Tolkein nerds free mythological reign over a multi-billion dollar program. Still, it worked with Palantir, so maybe there's hope.

So instead of Thor it could be Thorin! /lotrnerd

[tater]

I wonder if you could actually just burn money with an oxidizer and use that as fuel?

On topic, why not latin animal names like dinosaurs...

Sus volans rex!

Edited June 4, 2015 by tater

[KerikBalm]

I was optimistic when younger. I've watched them do nothing cool for decades. I think you will find many older guys who are excited about SpaceX, Blue Origin, etc, think this way because they've given up on NASA after cutting their teeth watching Apollo, then growing up to see virtually nothing come of it (unmanned is another story entirely, kudos to those guys).

I think NASA isn't given enough credit.

They've done *a lot* of cool things... they just haven't had people on board.

The mars exploration program, very cool... the gas giant orbiters... really cool.

Landing on an asteroid? done a long time ago, robotically.

Pluto?

Ceres... Ion drives?

Mercury orbiter....

Mapping lakes of Titan.

Confirming H2O ice at the poles of the moon?

I love space exploration... but humans aren't kerbals... we can't stick a person in a mercury pod, and send them to Titan, and have them do Evas...

Apollo was cool.... but when I think of the opporotunity cost of a manned mission.. I can't support it...

At least not until we have cryobot submarines on Europa, Enceledus, and Titan....

A robot exploring the martian caves looking for life.

A robot to investigate the martian geysers/spider features.

You could probably do all of that for the cost of 1 manned mars flyby, or another manned program to the moon.

I will give space X credit though... they do seem to be getting much closer to a practical reusable launcher than NASA did with its military cross range and payload requirements.

Now, some of those robotic missions have pretty large payload to LEO requirements, and if the SLS is used for them, I'd support it.

But the SLS is mainly focused on manned flight (though I am glad that it seems a limited Europa mission is likely, just to give the SLS something to launch), and I just can't support much of a manned program right now.

Also... politics and Ted Cruz's involvement in NASA... I think I'll avoid that for now...

My pessimism is that this is distracting from the really cool space exploration that I want to see.

[Orionkermin]

What about Chimera? It is an amalgamation of different programs after all.

[tater]

I explicitly said except for unmanned. Manned space flight is basically a really cool stunt. I like really cool stunts, but any such mission needs to have some "cool" to it, or it will not encourage expansion. ARM has zero cool factor. Those of us who watch NASA video from ISS will care, and no one else will give it a 2d look.

The Moon or Mars as stunts make far more sense.

[Kibble]

ARM has zero cool factor.

I disagree with that!

[11of10]

What about Chimera? It is an amalgamation of different programs after all.

Sounds sensible..

[_Augustus_]

I disagree with that!

It's wasting NASA's time and money.

Sounds sensible..

I second this!

[deadshot462]

"Pork Express"

[tater]

I disagree with that!

Imagine the news coverage. It would basically look like an ISS EVA. Stop a few random people on the street and ask if they watched the coverage of the module being moved on ISS to make room for the commercial crew dock. We'd all wait here until you found someone who even knew what "ISS" was, but we'd all die of old age.

It has no flash, and will generate little interest. It will get some news coverage, and old people will watch that, I suppose, but it is simply not compelling.

[SargeRho]

The ISS is business as usual. Manned BEO space flight isn't.

[basic.syntax]

I think ARM could make headlines and be long-term inspirational, but not if watered-down. Move a large rock into orbit around the moon, something big enough to be visible with a cheap telescope.

[Robotengineer]

The ISS is business as usual. Manned BEO space flight isn't.

Manned BEO to the Moon has a certain been-there-done-that feeling, while Manned BEO to Mars would be new and thrilling. The thing I'm going to be most hyped about in the 2020's is Europa Clipper.

[tater]

The ISS is business as usual. Manned BEO space flight isn't.

ARM is NOT BEO, it's BLEO. BEO requires it is outside earth's influence. On topic, it's interesting to YOU, heck, even ME, lol. It is not visually interesting to Joe Blow on the street. It's just not, like it or not. The reason the "Space Race" ended with the Moon was that nothing done since by men has been sufficiently interesting to the public at large. Note that after Apollo 11, even the Moon started waning in interest during the Apollo missions.

- - - Updated - - -

I think ARM could make headlines and be long-term inspirational, but not if watered-down. Move a large rock into orbit around the moon, something big enough to be visible with a cheap telescope.

It's never been anything but watered down. Capture is properly done by a robot, and all Orion does is rendezvous there (either lunar orbit or a libration point). The "asteroid" they are talking about would be tiny as well. The plan is to take a rock off an asteroid, or find a tiny free floating asteroid (a big meteor a few meters across).

The earth gets hit by these daily, I can go to the meteorite museum at the university geology dept here in town as see dozens just like whatever they will capture. One is over a meter.

Edited June 5, 2015 by tater

[Kibble]

This is getting extremely off topic - is it really nessecary to discuss the entirely subjective issue of what's "cool"?

On-topic, I would really hesitate to abandon all connection with Shuttle hardware, like how Delta II scorned its Thor heritage. But if we have to, how about a name like Discoverer or Journeyer? Something that evokes its horizon-expanding role in human spaceflight. Plus it sounds super 80s!

[tater]

The justification for SLS is stunt missions, so what is "cool" is relevant to SLS discussions. Sus volans, great latin name (like Jupiter).

[Kibble]

A simple Google Translate reveals that that is just another in an endlessly expansive line of pork jokes.

[John Nowak]

I'd go with Neptune, to fit into the Jupiter > Saturn naming scheme.

[tater]

Except it shares more with STS than Saturn. SLS (as a name) entirely fits its pedigree (on so many levels, lol).

Edited June 6, 2015 by tater

[GalihDz]

Maybe.. Next Gen Launcher? N.G.L. Hm.

[Bill Phil]

Except it shares more with STS than Saturn. SLS entirely fits its pedigree (on so many levels, lol).

And the Saturn V shared more with the Jupiter rocket? It had no similar components. Only the Saturn I/Ib had any Jupiter related hardware.

Neptune sounds cool, too. Besides... This is only one, out of hundreds, of space launch systems. Heck, SLS was actually an Air Force project back in the 60s.