Go Houston. Although it is not scheduled to land four humans on the surface of the moon for more then ten years, the next lunar lander now has a name- Altair. "We can stop calling it LSAM or esoteric things like that," said Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley. LSAM stands for Lunar Surface Access Module. The new name also comes with a new logo that pays homage to the original Apollo 11 logo which has the same Eagle facing the other direction (image after the jump). Altair is the 12th brightest star in the sky and part of the constellation Aquila, which means eagle in Latin. It is also one of the stars that you see in the Summer Triangle. Altair means, "the flying one" in Arabic. Many other stars also owe their names to the early Arabic astronomers- including Betelgeuse, Rigel, Vega, and Aldebaran. The logo depicts the eagle landing on the moon clutching an olive branch, an image that Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins picked to "unmistakably" communicate that Apollo was a peaceful mission. The new program is carrying on that theme while adapting the triangular shape and the ten stars of the other logos of their program. The ten stars are said to represent the ten NASA centers that are "working to return astronauts to the moon." <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q2fhVnTuxv4&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q2fhVnTuxv4&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/nasa-human-luna.html
Sweet! Which reminds me I gotta finish up Assassin's Creed over the holidays. Too many freaking games, too little time. Still have COD4 and Orange Box on the waiting list, begging for some action.
Cool! Reminds me of the dinosaur I once built part-time in the 1970's. The IMSAI 8080. It was a micro computer that stole and improved on, wait for it, the MITS Altair 8800! The IMSAI 8080 is considered to be the first "clone" of another computer, the dear Altair. (yes, I know it couldn't be more remotely related to the topic, but still, they got the name from somewhere. )
