ESA Rosetta: Landing Site on Comet 67/P named "Agilkia"

This image taken by ESA's Rosetta robe, shows the Philae lander's possible future landing site, called "Agilkia," on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. 

Image taken on Oct. 30, 2014. 

Credit: ESA /Rosetta /NAVCAM

A probe chasing a comet is about to make a daring attempt to land on its deep-space target, and now, the robot's landing site officially has a name.

The Rosetta mission's Philae lander is expected to make its home on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at a site now called "Agilkia," European Space Agency officials announced today (Nov. 4).

The new name was chosen from 8,000 entries after space agency officials issued a request to the public for suggestions.

The name Agilkia was suggested by more than 150 people as part of the competition. (Until today, the landing site was unofficially called "Site J.")

The new name comes from an island on the Nile River in Egypt. The name fits with the other monikers given to different parts of the comet-chasing mission.

The Philae lander is named for an obelisk discovered on Philae Island in the Nile, while Rosetta, the spacecraft that has carried Philae into deep space, is named after the Rosetta Stone, an ancient Egyptian tablet that helped modern archaeologists translate hieroglyphics.

Some of the artifacts found on Philae Island were actually relocated to Agilkia Island to protect them.

"The decision was very tough," the DLR German Aerospace Center's Felix Huber, chairman of the Philae Lander Steering Committee, said in a statement.

"We received so many good suggestions on how to name Site J, and we were delighted with such an enthusiastic response from all over the world. We wish to thank all participants for sharing their great ideas with us."

The goal of the $1.6 billion (1.3 billion euros) Rosetta mission is to learn more about the science of comets.

Scientists are also interested in researching what comets might reveal about the way life evolved in the solar system.

Officials chose the landing site because it has some smooth terrain, and could be the safest area to set down the probe.

While many people suggested Agilkia as the landing site name, ESA officials chose Alexandre Brouste of France as the winner of the competition.

Brouste will get to watch the live landing event, expected to take place on Nov. 12, from ESA's Space Operations Control Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

"In eight days' time, Philae will be deployed from the orbiter onto Agilkia," Fred Jansen, ESA Rosetta mission manager, said in the same statement.

"On 12 November, we'll be attempting a unique comet landing, an even more ambitious endeavor to unlock secrets of our most remote origins." 

NASA Contest: Name a Space Station Droid

This scenario shows NASA's free-flying robot in action. 

The space agency has teamed up with TopCoder in a contest to name the new space robot.

Credit: NASA /Topcoder

NASA needs your help to name a new space robot, and you could win some cash doing it.

NASA officials are asking space fans around the world to help name, and design a mission patch for, a new free-flying robot expected to launch to the International Space Station in 2017.

The first-place winner of the challenge will receive $1,000. Officials with the space agency put out the call to any interested space fans during a packed session here at New York Comic Con on Saturday (Oct. 11).

"We have this new free-flying robot that we're building," Jason Crusan, director of NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems division, told a full house at Comic Con. "We don't know what to call it.

'Free-flying robot' sounds kind of boring and not all that exciting, so we're asking you to actually name the robot for us."

Second, third and fourth place also come with cash prizes. Second place will win $500, with third and fourth prize taking home $250 each. NASA has teamed up with Topcoder to organize the contest.

If an artist's depiction of the new space automaton is any indication, the new robot may look like something out of "Star Wars."

In the artist's concept, the robot could appear as a small, ball-shaped droid that will use fans to move itself around the interior of the International Space Station. It is expected to be able to fly itself, or be operated by remote control.

The new free-flying bot would join a group of other free-fliers already on the station. NASA's SPHERES robots (the name is short for Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites) are already used on the orbiting outpost.

The program has been running for seven years, and is designed to help scientists test robotics hardware and software in microgravity.

The SPHERES robots and the new robot should be able to move around autonomously, but humans living and working on the orbiting outpost can also control the satellites.

"As the push for manned and automated exploration of the solar system expands, NASA and the NASA Ames Research Center are creating controlled and autonomous robotic devices capable of supplementing flight crew," officials wrote in a description of the challenge on the Topcoder website.

"These 'free-flying robots' will eventually extend the research and exploration capabilities of astronauts, as they are capable of working during off-hours and (eventually) in extreme environments."

To participate in the NASA challenge to name the new robot, space fans need to register with Topcoder. Participants will reach a checkpoint where they will receive feedback on their initial designs on Oct. 22, and the challenge ends on Oct. 27. Officials will announce the winners of the competition on Nov. 2.

NASA's Cassini: Final Mission Phase to be named 'Grand Finale'

With help from the public, members of NASA's Cassini mission have chosen to call the spacecraft's final orbits the "Cassini Grand Finale." 

Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

With input from more than 2,000 members of the public, team members on NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn have chosen a name for the final phase of the mission: the Cassini Grand Finale.

Starting in late 2016, the Cassini spacecraft will begin a daring set of orbits that is, in some ways, like a whole new mission.

The spacecraft will repeatedly climb high above Saturn's north pole, flying just outside its narrow F ring.

Cassini will probe the water-rich plume of the active geysers on the planet's intriguing moon Enceladus, and then will hop the rings and dive between the planet and innermost ring 22 times.

Because the spacecraft will be in close proximity to Saturn, the team had been calling this phase "the proximal orbits," but they felt the public could help decide on a more exciting moniker.

In early April, the Cassini mission invited the public to vote on a list of alternative names provided by team members or to suggest ideas of their own.

"We chose a name for this mission phase that would reflect the exciting journey ahead while acknowledging that it's a big finish for what has been a truly great show," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

ESA's Compact Payload Test Range for antenna testing

ESA's Compact Payload Test Range for antenna testing. 

Metal walls screen outside radio signals while spiky foam interior cladding absorbs radio signals internally to create conditions simulating the infinite void of space. Image courtesy ESA-Anneke Le Floc'h.

Kept isolated from the external Universe, a special ESA chamber simulates the boundless emptiness of space for testing satellite antennas.

Recently refitted, it is in need of a new name. Come up with a winning suggestion and you can visit it for yourself.

Long sporting the workaday name of Compact Payload Test Range, this chamber at ESA's technical heart in the Netherlands is a crucial part of the Agency's ability to check antennas attached to complete five-tonne satellites.

Metal walls block out all external electromagnetic signals such as TV and radio, radar and even mobile phone calls and the chamber's interior walls are clad with spiky 'anechoic' foam cladding to absorb radio signals internally.

A lot of internal noise is similarly absorbed - making for a notably hushed workplace as engineers prepare items for testing, most recently ESA's latest Galileo satellites.

"The Range is more than 25 years old, but bearing in mind the needs of future ESA missions it was recently refitted," explains Luis Rolo, overseeing the facility.

"It has now become one of the few antenna test ranges in the world able to measure the performance of large antennas using near-field and far-field techniques inside the same anechoic chamber.

"Most equivalent sites focus on one measurement type or the other. So we are looking for a new name to reflect this new dual capability."

A pair of carefully shaped carbon fibre reflectors transforms the spherical expanding radio signals coming to or from the satellite into a straight signal beam as though from far away in space.

This feature means that 'far-field' measurements equivalent to long-range testing can be reliably carried out even in a chamber of limited size - which is where the 'compact' in the name comes from.

Then, last year, the Range gained a state-of-the-art 'near-field scanner' to measure the electromagnetic fields in the immediate vicinity of a test antenna or complete satellite. Either the scanner or the test item itself can be moved to build up a complete map of its 'near-field' radiation patterns.

"These near-field measurements can then be mathematically processed to model their equivalent far-field performance," adds Luis. "Both classes of testing can cover a broad range of frequencies, offering huge versatility to our internal and external customers."

Suggest a name

The competition to suggest a name is open to any citizen of ESA's Member States. Just email your suggestion plus a short explanation to estecpr@esa.int, including 'COMPETITION' in the header.

The winning suggestion will receive a tour of ESTEC, including the Range, and a collector's copy of the large format photo-book, The ESA Effect.

ESA Astronaut Tim Peake: ESA says 'Name his six-month mission'

ESA astronaut Timothy Peake will be heading to the International Space Station next year and he needs your help to name his six-month mission. 

Send us your suggestion and help to make history.

The winner will receive a mission patch signed by Tim himself.

ESA Astronaut Corps.

Front line left to right: Paolo Nespoli, Roberto Vittori, Hans Schlegel, Christer Fuglesang, André Kuipers 

Back line left to right: Frank De Winne, Jean-François Clervoy, Leopold Eyharts. 

Tim was a helicopter test pilot and instructor before joining ESA’s astronaut corps in 2009. 

He was assigned his mission last May and has been training non-stop to be part of Expedition 46/47 to the orbital outpost.

He is following a long line of British explorers and scientists, stretching from the South Pole and the Nile to the Himalayas and now to outer space.

NASA Messenger: Mercury impact crater was named after John Lennon

This Mercury impact crater was named after John Lennon.

Credit: NASA/USGS

Beatles legend John Lennon, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" author Truman Capote and sculptor Alexander Calder are among the 10 artists and writers now immortalized on Mercury with impact craters bearing their names.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the global authority for all planetary and satellite nomenclature, approved the new monikers this week.

The names were proposed by the science team for NASA's Messenger spacecraft, which has beamed back hundreds of pictures of Mercury from its orbit around the tiny planet.

According to the IAU's naming rules, craters on Mercury can only be named after creative types, or more specifically, "deceased artists, musicians, painters, and authors who have made outstanding or fundamental contributions to their field and have been recognized as art historically significant figures for more than 50 years."

The IAU has been arbitrating cosmic names since 1919 and it has strict guidelines for different celestial bodies and planetary features.


Pluto's satellites, for example, must be named after mythological deities associated with the underworld (thus, Styx and Kerberos).

Moons of Jupiter, meanwhile, are named for Jupiter's lovers and descendants (such as Europa and Io).

Messenger — which stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging — launched in 2004 and arrived in orbit around Mercury in March 2011.

The spacecraft completed its first flyby of our solar system's smallest planet in January 2008, and since then, more than 100 craters on Mercury have been named.

"The Messenger team is delighted that the IAU has named an additional 10 impact craters on Mercury," the mission's principal investigator, Sean Solomon of Columbia University, said in a statement.

"We are particularly pleased that eight of the 10 individuals honored made all or many of their artistic contributions in the Twentieth Century, the same century in which the Messenger mission was conceived, proposed, and approved for flight."

ESA ExoMars Rover named after Italian Mars Astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli

An instrument module set to land on Mars has been named "Schiaparelli" after the 19th century Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, European scientists say.

The entry, descent and landing demonstrator module will fly on the 2016 ExoMars mission, a joint endeavor between the European Space Agency and Russia's Roscosmos space agency.

Schiaparelli will make a controlled landing on Mars, entering the atmosphere at 13,000 mph and using parachutes and thrusters to brake to less than 10 mph before landing less than 8 minutes later, and ESA release said Friday.

The module will collect data on the atmosphere during entry and descent, and its instruments will perform local environment measurements at the landing site in a region of plains known as Meridiani Planum.

The module's name was chosen to honour Schiaparelli, who made telescopic observations of Mars, naming what he thought were seas and continents.

He also saw what he thought were linear features on the surface, calling them canali which in Italian means channels, but the word was later mistranslated to canals.

Despite the mistaken identification of martian features, Schiaparelli's work was the first systematic investigation of the Red Planet.

"Considering the importance of Giovanni Schiaparelli's pioneering observations of Mars, it was an easy decision to give his name to the ExoMars module that is paving the way to the further exploration of the Red Planet," Alvaro Gimenez Cañete, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration (not the Spanish footballer)

The Legend and Name of Sally Ride Lives on as AGOR ship

Prof Sally Ride

The United States Navy's first academic research ship to be named after a woman will be christened R/V Sally Ride after NASA's first female astronaut to fly in space.

She became the first American woman to enter space in a low Earth orbit in 1983, a full twenty years after the Soviet Union's first woman astronaut Valentina Tereshkova.

Dr Sally Ride left NASA in 1987 to work as a Professor at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control and had served on the investigation panels for two space shuttle disasters (Challenger and Columbia)—the only person to serve on both.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Friday (April 12) the next ocean-class Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research (AGOR) ship will be named the R/V Sally Ride.

"As secretary of the Navy, I have the great privilege of naming ships that will represent America with distinction as part of the fleet for many decades to come," Mabus said in a statement revealing the names of seven ships, including the Sally Ride.

"These ships were all named to recognise the hard working people from cities all around our country who have contributed in so many ways to our Navy and Marine Corps team."

Mabus named the future R/V Sally Ride in memory of the astronaut, who also served as a professor, scientist and innovator at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California in San Diego. Scripps will operate the R/V Sally Ride when it enters the Navy's fleet in 2015.

Dr Sally Ride, 65, died on July 23, 2012, as a result of pancreatic cancer.

The R/V Sally Ride, a Neil Armstrong-class AGOR ship, is the U.S. Navy's first research vessel named after a woman. 

It is named after the late great Prof Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

CREDIT: Department of Defense

Valentina Tereshkova (born 6 March 1937) is a retired Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than four hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.

It took NASA and the US Adminstration a further 20 years to finally approve of women astronauts. Until that time they were thought NOT capable of the Right Stuff!

William Shatner names Pluto Moon: Vulcan

In a voting campaign to pick names for two of Pluto's smallest moons one clear winner is "Vulcan," proposed by U.S. actor William Shatner of "Star Trek" fame.

Online ballot casting allowing the public to vote for the name of two recently discovered moons of the dwarf planet -- for now known as just P4 and P5 -- ended Friday, with Vulcan in first place followed by Cerberus.

Although a late addition to the candidate names the public could vote on, Vulcan piled up a big lead after Shatner, who played Capt. James T. Kirk in the popular television series and movies, campaigned for the name on Twitter.

Vulcan was the home planet of Kirk's first officer, Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy.

Officials at SETI, which conducted the public poll, said they considered it an appropriate candidate since Vulcan is also the name of the god of fire in Roman mythology.

"Vulcan is the Roman god of lava and smoke, and the nephew of Pluto." SETI scientist Mark Showalter wrote in a blog when the name was added to the list on Feb. 12. "Thanks to William Shatner for the suggestion!"

Although Vulcan and Cerberus won the name poll, the final decision on names for the moons will rest with the International Astronomical Union.

Astronomers have found five moons around Pluto so far, with three of them named: Charon, Nix and Hydra.

P4 was discovered in 2011, and P5 in 2012; both are only about 20 miles in diameter.