Naming craft

[7499275]

Simple as the title says.

How do you name your craft? For example with NASA you had, Gemini, Apollo, Mercury, Explorer, voyager, etc...

I've always wondered how NASA came up with names as I would like to use the same system they do to name stuff, but also curious how you guys name your own crafts?

[SkyRender]

I have three major naming schemes: descriptive, bad puns, and obscure references. On my 2-mission and 3-mission tech tree mastery Career mode files, the vessels are usually called One, Two, and (if applicable) Three. One time I called them Nicolas Marty, Antonio Stella Bottom Tile, and Ji Plug Pu Melon Nai in an obscure reference to a video posted by Stewart Ashen. And often my interplanetary missions have punnish names like Dunaverse and Eeloosive.

[Flymetothemun]

I attempted to use "program" names like "Athena 1", but it never panned out. Nowadays it's either cryptic abbreviations or things like "Mun Lander 1", "Mun Rover 1", "Satellite 2", or if it's a re-creation it's usually the name of the thing I'm recreating plus a number for whatever attempt it is..

[Jouni]

In my latest mission, Interplanetary III carried Lander IV to Moho. You can probably guess the rest.

[Master Tao]

Mine have become steadily less creative. Back in the demo, I had a series of terrible rockets I name Mun Unit: Adriatic, Baltic, Chesapeake, Danube, Euphrates, Frank, Ganges, etc. I never got to Z, though.

[-root]

How do you name your craft?

Normally I go with the Project Name + whatever iteration i'm up to.

For example, my "Explorer Project" was about getting something into orbit around each body in the local system (Kerbin, Mun & Minmus). I reckon I ended up getting to about "Explorer XII" by the time I had a few failures.

If spacecraft were really reusable, I'd go more along ship naming lines (eg. Challenger or whatever)

[Brofessional]

Refer to these pages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_deities

[Madrias]

I tend to vomit up whatever comes to mind as a name. Sometimes it's a description, like "ION Rover," a spaceplane with an ion drive as the landing stage, for worlds like Duna or for one-shot landings on Eve or Laythe, where it can't pull back up. Sometimes it's something humorous, designed simply to torture kerbals, like the "Bottle Rocket Ion Glider" which uses the big Rockomax BACC solid rocket booster to throw a small ion propelled space plane at space. Sometimes it explodes, other times it makes it. Either way, getting sent to the BRIG is a punishment no Kerbal wants, but it's done as a result of crashing a craft.

And then there are the times where I actually have a planned mission and so it's named. Last one was in Career mode, "Solara 7,' the last of my solar-science gathering probes.

[Godot]

I have 3 naming schematas that I use concurrently:

1. Functional abbeviations for the subparts of a spaceship ... as my spaceship usually are modularized, I have Subparts like RM_1 (Return module), LM_1 (Complex of Landing Module and Return Module)

2. Greek Lettering + Numbers for assembled spaceships (that is, interplanetary craft + mission parts + launcher) Greek Lettering will get increased to the next letter, if the next launcher has a significant increase in dV of the whole spaceship complex ... else the greek letter stays the same and just the number gets increased (Example: Gamme_1 = 3k dV ... Gamma_2 = 3.6 k dV, Delta_1 = 4.9k dV )

3. Mission naming ... Name of the Target planet (or "Test", if it is just a certification of a spaceship/probe on Kerbin [atmospheric craft] or Mun [Vacuum craft]) + optionally P if it is an unmanned mission + number ... For example: Mun_P_1 = First Probe to Mun ... Minmus_2 = Second manned mission to Minmus

I might add that I have an Excel table, where I note Subparts, assembled spacecraft and missions

[Felsmak]

I name my orbiter/lander probes after fictional characters that have dropped someone from a high place. I have Jaime and Bran; Petyr and Lysa; and Mulan and Shang. The last one wasn't exactly a deliberate attempt to kill the dropee - he actually did that himself - but it's still good!

Edited July 11, 2014 by Felsmak

[Superfluous J]

Lately it's been the 3 letters at the start of my destination appended with "pollo." I only made 2 exceptions out of the entire list of all planets and moons, "Mohollo" because I liked the way it sounded, and "Joolpollo" because I did NOT like the way the 3-letter option sounded.

Before that, it was a combination of "<Destination> <Purpose>" (like "Gilly Kethane Base") and witty names or funny acronyms. Basically, if I could think up a witty name or funny acronym, the ship got it. If I couldn't, the ship got a more pedestrian name.

Edited July 11, 2014 by 5thHorseman

[Cirocco]

As mentioned before, I also tend to go with description, bad pun or mythological figure + iteration number.

examples:

To the Mun!

To the Mun (and way beyond)!

Potato grabber Mk I

The Argo (massive crew transport and capital colony ship)

The Orpheus Mk IV (an Eve return lander named such because it's going to hell and coming back)

The KSS (Kerbal Space Ship) Intrepid Mk IV. A bit of a deciation from the norm, this spaceplane was made to do runway-duna surface-runway. I tried to go with the NASA way of naming spaceplanes and because this thing was pretty experimental, Intrepid seemed apt.

[Frank_G]

I usually adapt Sci-Fi authors names to the kerbal universe for large unique craft... like Arthur C. Kerman, Robert A. Kerman, Isaac Kerman and so on.

For standardized ships i go with mythological names of the classic literature. My launchers for example are named after greek heroes like Ajax, Herakles, Perseus and so on.

[edit] i forgot... Satellites are using abbreviations describing their function. K-HOSS-1 for example is the Kerbin High Orbit Scanning Satellite 1... So i can easily identify function and position.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Frank_G

[psyper]

For my generic craft such as heavy lifters or transporters I have generic names along with the version (mark) of that craft so my current in use ones are

Heavy Lifter III (took three different versions before I settled on this one - the first two are now defunct)

Heavy Lifter IV (can lift larger payloads than the III version)

Transporter VI (took 6 different versions before I was happy with this version. Its able to transport between planets - has an optional fuel tank that can be docked to it for longer journeys)

For my space stations I've gone with British Astronauts.

SS Foale (above Kerbin)

SS Sharman (above Minmus)

SS Patrick, SS Peake & SS Sellars to follow at some point!! (note to England - we need more astronauts!)

I've been building some large ships which are designed to patrol each planet mining resources along the way - they are there to basically assist with colonisation and also to help if anyone needs it - there are going to be at least 5 of them and they will be in orbit around any colonies or mining/prospecting crew. They are the Astra Planeta Class ships (named after the wondering planets in greek mythology).

Phainon & Eosphoros have been constructed so far and is currently going through a shake-down phase before either they are upgraded or lessons learned from them will be applied to the next 3 Phaethon, Pyroeis & Stilbon.

Each ship has a miner which is just called xxx Miner (xxx being the name of the ship) and a rescue ship which can hold kerbals and fuel for most situations which was called prometheus after the film but I've since renamed it Angel with I feel is more apt for its role (perhaps I should name each one after arch-angels...)

I have another project creating a tourist network - I currently have a hotel constructed in space named after my wife (If you want to get really addicted to a game naming something awesome after your SO goes a heck of a looong way in their books!) and the first SSTO to transport tourists to the hotel is going to be called Dreamcatcher (just because) - I'm tempted to call the next two SSTO's Blackcat and Rabbitsfoot maybe

[eempc]

My spacecraft are named after gemstones (for spaceplanes) or mythological figures (for rockets) with a bunch of letters and numbers to designate its characteristics like fuel capacity, mission type (passenger, cargo, science, mining, etc), and engines used.

E.g. "144-Diamond E-JN" = Refers to 1440 fuel capacity, Diamond is its wing planform, E stands for Explorer which means it doesn't actually have a specific purpose, J for turbojets, and N for LV-N.

Most of the time however, rockets just get generic names like "Asteroid Grabber" or "Kethane Refinery".

[DisarmingBaton5]

obscure references

Like F-24601? (I ran out of ideas after building too many fighters)

[No one]

Originally I named them after what they would do (e.g. "Mun Orbiter") but then I started getting more creative**.

Some common things I name them after:

Greek mythological figures. More specifically, greek mythological figures who attempted to go against the gods and found out that if you do that in greek mythology then bad stuff happens to you. For example: Icarus (Fly close to the sun), Prometheus (Steal fire science from Zeus Jupiter Jool), Arachne* (No relation to the spaceship, I just thought it would be a good name)

Random things vaguely related to the name of the planet/name of the equivalent real planet: WALL-E, which was going to Eve, Minecraft, which was going to Dres (Dres is like Ceres. Ceres was the god of Agriculture. Minecraft made me appreciate the importance of agriculture. I really didn't know what to call it). Also Cerberus (Go to Eeloo) fits more into this category than the first one.

Real spaceships: Messenger which was going to Moho (That was what NASA called their mercury probe)

Real Astronauts: The Collins Lander*, because Collins was left behind while the others went down and landed on the moon, and the Collins Lander gets left behind on the planet/moon.

Random things which sound vaguely related to where they're going via random association: Gilly sounds sort of like "Gill". "Gills" are what fish have. Fish swim in the water. What else is in the water? Frogs. Thus, the Frog is a planned mission to Gilly.

Previous spaceships which accomplished the same thing: If the goal is ever "ESCAPE", it gets named Mun Orbiter 4. When I was making the Mun Orbiters, I accidentally skipped 3 and went straight to 4. The Mun Orbiter 4, I think this was the manned one, ended up being shot out of Kerbin's SOI and trapped in Kerbolar Orbit for 30 years while I completed the tech tree then went and rescued him a long time later. Next, I went back to 3 which I had skipped, only then I made another Mun Orbiter 4. This one, unmanned, ended up having lots of Delta-V (This is what happens when the final stage is an SRB and the rest of it is just a sputnik and a few weightless things) and it escaped Kerbol. None of the other Mun Orbiters even escaped Kerbin's SOI. Of course, the goal hasn't been to escape, but if they ever give you a reason to escape Kerbol's SOI, I'm calling the escaping Ship the "Mun Orbiter 4". If I need 2, it will be "Mun Orbiter 4" and "Mun Orbiter 4 2".

*=A general ship design used in multiple ships. The others are all names of specific ships.

**I do still use this naming system sometimes. For example: MohoProbe, DresProbe, EelooProbe. But I've been trying to stay away, even if it means having to use the naming system which led to the Frog.

[cantab]

In my current save, historical figures, often not very related to the role of the ship. Modules in my modular system are named separately which can lead to the assembled ship having a hyphenated name.

My asteroids, on the other hand, get a number and the name of a notable Kerbal.

For example my big Duna mission features the Macbeth asteroid tug, the Fermi nuclear-powered transfer stage, the Wells Duna lander, the Columbus Ike lander, the Hilton hab module, and the Alhazen science return capsule, all attached to asteroid 2 Bill.

[The Jedi Master]

Each project is assigned a name, usually based off a deity of some sort, a space-related person/thing or pop culture. For a Mun landing, it might be Armstrong or Artemis. For a Duna landing, it might be Curiosity. A space shuttle might be Skywalker. When I'm stumped, I tend to revert to generic exploration-sounding names, like Discovery or Columbus. There are also a few 'silly' names for when I'm doing something ridiculous, like Holyfluff for a huge, completely unnecessary SLS monstrosity.

Planes are a little different. I use abbreviations (all starting as X-#, X standing for experimental) followed by the name of a bird or animal of some sort. Most planes do not get out of the X-1 phase, because I suck at planes...

[Sky_walker]

Something-class Role

For example:

Flea-class Deorbiter (tiny ship for pulling debris from orbit)

Arrow-class Aircraft (atmospheric aircraft with delta wings)

And so on, and so on

[Tw1]

It depends on what it is, but normally, I go with function based or descriptivist names. If it's a quick, task specific, five minute build I won't miss, I'll often not bother with a name.

"Mega Munnar Load lifter" Function based

"Dash-wing starfighter" -Ship description type

I usually try to make them interesting, and sometimes through in another word, or some letters for good measure.

If it's a vessel specifically assembled for a major mission, like an interplanetary endeavour, then it gets a name somewhat related to the task, and possibly with a reference or just a bit of wit.

"Joolius Xena" -The ion powered jool probe.

"The Big Red Car" -The Duna Mothership with jumbo tanks (filled with signing kerbals)

If I've launched many of the same craft, then I'll give them a nickname in inverted commas, and/or a roman numeral after the name.

"X4 Rescue Rocket 'Jeb's flight' "

If I make a craft similar to another craft I made previously, I'll often give them a similar name.

I have made and "ironingboard" "breadboard" "Surfboard" and "Flatboard" mini-rovers with seats.

"Kerbin-Explore-o-pod", "Duna-Explore-o-pod", "Evepod," and "Duna-Pod-2", have all been long-distance, lander-can based rovers, all with some degree of capacity to propel themselves through space.

I don't really set out to have rules around naming, but it just kind of happens.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Tw1

[EdFred]

Ships get named numerically

[Destination][Number to destination]

DunaOne, DunaTwo, DunaThree...

JoolOne, JoolTwo...

MohoOne...

I'm setting up a constellation of KSO satellites named KerbComOne, KerbComTwo...

Bases on bodies get named phonetically

[body]Base[Letter at Destination]

MunBaseAlpha, MunBaseBravo, MunBaseCharlie...

DunaBaseAlpha...

So far I only have bases on Eve, Minmus, Mun, and Duna.

[dryer_lint]

For my first mission to some place, or anything that's significant like that, I'll actually make a "good" name... or try to. Something to do with orbits or exploration or whatever.

Afterwards, if it's a non-significant mission, I'll just give it a silly name. The "Greniskol Jool Probe". "Greniskol". "Green is cool". Yeah, I'm not good at naming.

[InfectedGrowth]

I always use three to four letter acronyms followed by the iteration.

For example the SOV-6 (Standard Orbiting Vehicle, the 6th design ) SOR-2 (Standard orbiting rocket) SMR-3 (Standard Missions Rocket) DSP-2 (Deep Space Probe) you get the idea.

Some are less serious, like the BFR-2 (Big F'ing Rocket) booster or the HMJ-2 (Highly Maneuverable Jet) Fighter Jet

Sometimes I forget what they stand for...

[xrayfishx]

Inb4 merged with an older version of the same thread.

My spacecraft have either short abbreviations (LDHOCS - Long Distance High Orbit Communication Satellite), two words kinda merged and shortened (TeraCom - a communication satellite with dishes that have several Tm range) and occasional "project" names or properly names spacecraft, often together with an abbreviation (CCS California - Crew/Cargo Shuttle California).