Nasa headquarters map12/27/2023 ![]() Once a theme is picked, hundreds of names fitting into that theme are compiled. Then, as now, team members suggested ideas for themes based on sites where they have worked or that they have a personal connection to, and they informally discussed which would be the most interesting to include, keeping in mind that various names would be memorialized in future scientific papers. These quadrants would be themed around a site of geological significance on Earth. They started by drawing a grid, making squares, or quadrants, equivalent to about 0.7 miles (1.2 kilometers) on each side. Before Curiosity landed in 2012, the rover’s team created a geological map of the landing area. Download image ›ĭespite occasional exceptions, the Curiosity and Perseverance missions stick to nicknames based on terrestrial locations. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS-Flagstaff/University of Arizona. The yellow-tinted quadrants are areas the rover has driven through since then. The red oval indicates the landing ellipse where the rover was targeted to touch down in 2012. And the Curiosity team named a Martian hill after their colleague Rafael Navarro-González, who died from COVID-19 complications.Ĭuriosity's Quadrant Themes : This map shows all the quadrant themes for NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, which is currently in the Roraima quadrant seen at the bottom. The InSight team named a rock that had been jostled by the lander’s retrorockets during touchdown “ Rolling Stones Rock,” after the band. The names for the spots where Curiosity and Perseverance landed honor science-fiction writers Ray Bradbury and Octavia E. For instance, the Opportunity team nicknamed a crater “Endurance” to honor the ship that carried explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated expedition to Antarctica. The philosophy changed with the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, whose teams started using more intentional names. “Yogi Rock,” “Casper,” and “Scooby-Doo” were among the unofficial names applied by the team behind NASA’s first rover, Sojourner, in the late 1990s. More than 2,000 locations on Mars bear official names, but even more unofficial nicknames dot the Martian map.Įarly Mars missions sometimes took a whimsical route with nicknames, even using cartoon character names. Jezero Crater, which Perseverance has been exploring, shares the name from a Bosnian town Belva, an impact crater within Jezero, is named after a West Virginia town that is, in turn, named after Belva Lockwood, the suffragist who ran for president in 18. The IAU sets standards for naming planetary features and logs the names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.įor example, craters larger than 37 miles (60 kilometers) are named for famous scientists or science-fiction authors smaller craters are named after towns with populations of less than 100,000 people. ![]() ![]() The difference between an official name on Mars and an unofficial one is seemingly simple: Official monikers have been approved by a body of scientists known as the International Astronomical Union (IAU). How Does NASA Name Things on Mars? : Learn more about how Mars scientists name the craters, hills, valleys, and rocks on the Red Planet.
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