Here's something I've been wondering lately. What determines if a spacecraft that goes to Mars is going to get a "name," or just be referred to as its mission objective? For example, we have Mariners, Vikings, Odyssey, Pathfinder and Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Phoenix. Then we have Mars Climate Orbiter, Mars Polar Lander, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (yet to be re-named?)

I know I've left some out. And I'm focusing on NASA missions. But if I think of other Solar System missions, most of them have names too, like Voyager, Messenger, Galileo, Cassini. In my opinion, having a name like that has a much grander effect than fumbling over "Mars this-is-what-it's-supposed-to-do."

I'm not necessarily looking for answers, just wanted someplace to put my thoughts down and maybe get some other opinions!

In the old times, interplanetary probes were given names related to sea exploration, while lunar prbes got names related to geological exploration.
Many names sound strange to me in the beginning, but once I get used to them, they sound better and better. Best fit until now was "Voyager".

The low end in naming spacecraft is the ISS...

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Landers seem to get the good names. Orbiter names are more functional. Mars Odyssey may be an exception, but only because it was launched in 2001. Mars Polar Lander probably would have been given a better name if it had successfully landed.

Interplanetary one-shot missions generally get named after people (Galileo, Cassini, Magellan). On the other hand, we have MESSENGER and New Horizons (to Mercury and Pluto, respectively).

I don't think there's any rhyme or reason to it, actually. Someone comes up with a name, and it sticks.

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Or they just hold a contest and select a photogenic kid that submitted a genericly inspirational sounding name.

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But they only seem to do that for rovers.

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When I first started working on Voyager, it was known as MJS, or "Mariner Jupiter Saturn". It wasn't renamed till shortly before launch.

Most proposed missions nowadays try to come up with a snazzy name that will click with the selection committee.

The ISS is named Freedom, if I'm not mistaken.

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Best I can tell, Space Station Freedom was the name of several designs. When the cost proved prohibitive, the planners linked up with the Russian effort, and the International Space Station, ISS, was the result.

From NASA:

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The first crew gave it the name Alpha when they entered it. But this has also never materialized. It's always the ISS.

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

Odd thing - one strike against Alpha was the idea that the Russians would be offended (this implying that ISS was the first of something). However, they have taken to it more than I see on the NASA side, since one does actually see references (even labels on model kits) with the Russian designation "MKC Alfa" (ISS Alpha).

Freedom went through a redesign phase when it shrank enough to be known as Fred (as in "that's all the letters they could fit on the side"). I though that was pretty informal, but lately saw a book illustration of that concept explicitly denoted Fred. Wonder whether Ed is floating around in some 10-year-old files?

Doh, I've heard that but I forgot. Looks like I was mistaken.

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It wasn't so much that the cost was prohibitive as the ISS became a political tool to keep the Russian engineers from building rockets to sell to other countries. The Russian partnership was not cost savings - we pretty much paid them for all their contributions. They did supply some hardware that we didn't have to design (docking systems, the FGB), and the habitable compartments were rearranged and added to by Russian components.

I'd never heard of "Fred".

In the air to ground events, they do refer to the ISS as Alpha. It reminds me of Moonbase Alpha from Space 1999. If only it could be blasted out of orbit.

While we're talking about the ISS, I was wondering the other day why they can't make better use of the Progress modules. All that effort that goes into getting all that mass up to the Station, and they just dump it to get burned up. Surely they could turn it into an extra bedroom or something, or clamp it to the side somewhere for some future use, such as hab modules for a mission to Mars? (See, I knew I could get it back on topic.) In fact, why not adapt the whole station for a trip to Mars? Or something like that.

Just rambling.

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Progress is filled with trash before it's let go to burn up. Wonder if anyone ever made a wish upon one of these shooting stars full of garbage?

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But with the shuttle still grounded, the Russian partnership is more about butt savings at this point. Since the HL-20 was cancelled, there's no way to get anyone up or down from there without the Russians!

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"Zis is not nuts, zis is super-nuts!"
Mathematician Richard Courant on viewing an Orion test

Post Columbia, having the Russians involved has definitely saved our bacon. ISS would probably have Skylabbed by now. That's a big plus for the alternate launch system and independent capability. Not that that was considered in the decision to include the Russians in the program.