The final frontier. A vast, formless abyss into which
humanity launches its satellites and rovers in a boundless quest for knowledge.
The discoveries made in that airless vacuum of mystery could impact the human
understanding of the cosmos, and now anyone has the opportunity to name one of the rovers that the European Space Agency
will use to explore the surface of Mars.
Except the European Space Agency will choose the rover's
final name with a panel of scientists. And they probably won't go for Marsy
McMarsface.
Which, honestly, why not? There's a Boaty
McBoatface, voted on by the public in a thoroughly democratic fashion. And
who can forget Trainy
McTrainface? Or Ferry McFerryface?
Or winning racehorse, Horsey
McHorseface?
OK, maybe the habit of letting the public vote on naming
important vessels can be a bit repetitive. It's amazing what a few trolls, or
just plain uninspired-but-weirdly appealing ideas, can do to sway public
opinion.
Sometimes panels picking contest answers end in something
great — NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity, was named by an 11-year-old
girl who won a contest with a 250-word essay. And sometimes, it can
just guard against having some dumb, crowdsourced name appear in the history
books.
Whatever happens here, it should be entertaining to see which
name the ESA panel ends up choosing.
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