Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:58:13 -0600 From: chuck.hards@gmail.com To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Space Station node may get awful name
I see nothing wrong with naming minor planets. We name some pretty tiny islands on this earth; we may as well name some fairly small space rocks. They are, after all, real estate.
But naming a module on the ISS seems silly. It's not a wing of a hospital, after all. It's more like naming the galley in a large aircraft, or the toilet in an RV. It's stupid. People are getting paychecks for thinking this crap up and spending time on it.
As an opposing viewpoint, I think that this naming exercise is doing a lot of good. Yes it is pointless to name what amounts to a galley in an aircraft, but look at what it has done. It has gotten thousands of people that probably have never even been to NASA's website to log in and vote. So what if it is a silly name for a tiny piece of the space station? If it can spark the interest in even a couple of people that previously had none, it has served a good purpose. ~Jon Christensen