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. On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 8:17 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
Funny that you should mention that just now as there's currently a thread on the Minor Planet Mailing List about a similar feeling regarding naming minor planets.
Personally I've no problem with naming things as long as it's done ethically. And oft times names are more descriptive, shorter and easier to remember than say, a serial number.
Actually I rather like the way minor planets are handled. All of them that have been tracked long enough get a number and are then eligible to be named (the vast majority, BTW, have no names).