Sally Ride Honored On The Moon
NASA’s GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride, NASA
“NASA has named the site where twin agency spacecraft impacted the moon Monday in honor of the late astronaut, Sally K. Ride, who was America’s first woman in space and a member of the probes’ mission team. Last Friday, Ebb and Flow, the two spacecraft comprising NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, were commanded to descend into a lower orbit that would result in an impact Monday on a mountain near the moon’s north pole.”
I can’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable about this memorial. Sally Ride was a wonderful astronaut, scientist, and public speaker. There aren’t many heroes these days, and in blazing the trail for U.S. women in science and technology, Sally Ride was certainly one of them. But she’s being memorialized here by what is essentially a human-produced debris field on the lunar surface. Not even a crater. Probably more of a smudge on the regolith composed of pulverized wire and sheet metal. Not even a very big debris field. That’s not to say that Grail wasn’t a marvelous, and even epochal science mission mission. But still …
Couldn’t we have done better? Well, maybe we did (a real crater, or an asteroid perhaps), but if we did, then why this? Perhaps we could name the Grail data set in her honor, or perhaps just name a mascon for her?
I agree with the sentiment – it’s a man made non-event, and she deserves much better. An asteroid perhaps, or even better, a unique land feature, because she was unique.
And as for the title of the story – Phrasing, man, phrasing!
I just posted a blog about this:
http://mymoonspace.com/blog…
The weird thing is—it’s a mountain! An unnamed mountain. And they couldn’t just name the mountain after her? “Mons Sally” or “Mons Ride” is a far more inspiring name for it, and yet they call it the “Impact Site”. Sounds to me like a nuclear missile site or something. Why wouldn’t they just name the mountain after her? Seems way more fitting.
“And they couldn’t just name the mountain after her?”
That’s correct. Per IAU rules, they couldn’t just name the mountain after her. See my response to Helen Simpson.
“Couldn’t we have done better?”
No, as it turns out, we couldn’t…well, not yet, anyway. The IAU’s rules and conventions for planetary nomenclature states that they will not accept names for planetary or natural satellite features commemorating individuals unless they have been deceased for at least three years. Maria Zuber has expressed her intent to propose naming the whole massif in commemoration of Sally Ride after that time has elapsed.
I’m not aware of any spacecraft impact sites that have been named for people. Ranger? Apollo LM? Apollo 2nd stage? MIP? Smart-1?
Nope. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe any of these small,
debris-strewn human created pits in the regolith were named after people. I
don’t think we even name any of our atomic bomb craters after people, but at
least that would memorialize a particular venue of historical importance. Now,
Keith suggested back in July 2009 that the LCROSS crater be named for Walter Cronkite, who died then. Cronkite certainly deserved an honor associated with a space mission.
A few months later, NASA, in their wisdom I believe, decided instead to
dedicate the whole mission to him. That’s what they could have done for Sally Ride with GRAIL, no? That strikes me as more of an honor than eternally
associating her name with a trash littered skid mark. A hundred years from now, lunar tourists will visit a cordoned off trash heap behind a plaque for Sally Ride.
I appreciate that this was done with the utmost respect and honor, but it just doesn’t play well.
Thanks to Tommy for pointing out that Sally Ride already has an asteroid named after her, though that’s an admittedly unspecific honor. She deserves better.
Asteroid (4763) Ride was named for her many, many years ago.
Sally Ride was a great American who deserves a great tribute – certainly better than the minor hole formed by either one of these small spacecraft. My suggestion – name some bi formation on Ceres or Pluto once we get there and the appropriate timeframe has passed. Meanwhile, for the scrape markes made by the Grail mission impacts – why not name them after the recent NRC study on NASA’s strategic vision and the one that is about to begin – the analogy is perfect; they probe just below the surface but have no lasting impact.