NASA Wants You To Help Name Its Non-Human Artemis I Passenger
Eight names are up for vote in a bracket-style challenge.
As NASA gears up for its Artemis I mission — the operation that will prepare the agency to send its first woman and first person of color to the Moon — the space organization has asked the general public to help name the “Moonikin,” or anatomical human model, that will be on board the Orion crew capsule.
The dummy will be used to “gather data on the vibrations that human crewmembers will experience during future Artemis missions,” according to NASA.
There are eight names currently in the running — Ace, Campos, Delos, Duhart, Montgomery, Rigel, Shackleton and Wargo — each with their own significant meaning.
Ace stands for Artemis Crew Explorer and Campos references the agency’s revered electrical engineer Arturo Campos. Delos refers to a sacred island in the Aegean Sea, while Duhart honors the first African American woman, Dr. Irene Duhart Long, to serve in the Senior Executive Service at Kennedy Space Center and Montgomery pays tribute to Julius Montgomery, the first African American ever hired at the Cape Canaveral Air Force.
Rigel is one of the 10 brightest stars in Earth’s galaxy and Shackleton is a crater on the moon named after explorer Ernest Shackleton. Finally, Wargo references Michael Wargo, who represented NASA as the first Chief Exploration Scientist for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.
The names will be up for vote on NASA’s Artemis Program’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in a bracket-style format beginning on June 16. The final vote will occur on June 28 and the agency will unveil the official name on June 29.
Elsewhere at NASA, the agency is planning its first-ever mission to the dark side of the Moon.
