It's true, there's been a spate of NASA marketing advice here lately, but this time the agency is actually asking for help.
The agency is calling for the public to submit names for a new space-based gamma-ray telescope that will be launched in mid-2008. For now it's known as the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, which don't get me wrong, is plenty catchy, but surely you all can do better.
Mission leaders are hoping a good name will help raise the mission's profile. Here's Alan Stern, associate administrator for science at NASA's Washington headquarters:
In fact the GLAST mission is genuinely exciting. Gamma-ray observations will help scientists study some of the most extreme forces in the universe, from the ability of black holes to accelerate particles nearly to the speed of light, to helping puzzle out the composition of mysterious dark matter.
So, we just have to give this thing a memorable name before it launches. Anybody for The Hulk?
Feel free to weigh in here, we'd love to hear what you're thinking – but official entries should be posted to this address, along with a statement of 25 words or less explaining why you think it's a good name. The deadline is March 31, and the full rules are on the site linked above.
Happy naming!
NASA Calls for Suggestions to Re-Name Future Telescope Mission [NASA]
Name that Satellite! [GLAST Home Page]
(Image: The (as it's known today) GLAST observatory on the ground at
General Dynamics, a contractor. Credit: NASA and General Dynamics)
