WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • An unofficial Twitter account invited followers to suggest names for NASA’s planned Uranus Orbiter and Probe.
  • The mission could launch in the early 2030s and spend several years orbiting Uranus.
  • Suggestions included A.N.U.S, R.E.C.T.U.M, Suppository, Seymore Butts and Proby McProbeface.
  • More serious proposals included Odin and Boreas, drawing inspiration from Norse and Greek mythology.

Inviting the public to name anything is a dangerous game, especially when the subject practically begs for jokes. The sailors who nearly ended up aboard Boaty McBoatface could have offered a warning before anyone asked the Internet to name a probe headed for Uranus.

Yet that is exactly what happened, although the request came in a less official capacity. The Ice Giant Missions Twitter account asked its followers what the planned Uranus Orbiter and Probe should be called, and the Internet responded with predictable enthusiasm.

The project is a mission that NASA hopes could launch sometime in the early 2030s. It would spend several years orbiting Uranus and could potentially send a probe through the planet’s atmosphere toward the surface.

Such a mission could reveal a great deal about the makeup of the ice giant. That scientific importance is also why handing naming duties to the public was always likely to produce results that belonged more in a comedy routine than on a spacecraft.

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The invitation appeared alongside an official looking poster image. That presentation led a number of people to interpret the request as an actual NASA naming campaign rather than an appeal from an unofficial Twitter account.

No evidence of such a scheme appeared on official NASA sites. The mission has not yet been greenlit, making it unlikely that NASA would already be inviting the public to supply a name, especially when the destination makes the inevitable jokes so easy.

Ice Giant Missions later shared some of the suggestions that were suitable for publication. The resulting list demonstrated both the Internet’s creativity and its determination to ensure that a serious scientific mission would struggle to keep a straight face.

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Several contributors leaned into NASA’s love of acronyms and backronyms. One suggestion was A.N.U.S, expanded as Advanced New Uranus Space mission, while another was R.E.C.T.U.M, meaning Research Education Charging Towards Uranus Mission.

Other proposals required even less decoding. Operation Butt Plug, Pegassus, Seymore Butts and Suppository all appeared among the suggested names, leaving little doubt about which aspect of the destination had captured the public imagination.

No public naming exercise would be complete without a tribute to Boaty McBoatface. Proby McProbeface duly appeared on the list, carrying the familiar naming formula from the sea into a possible future mission to the outer reaches of the Solar System.

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Fortunately for a Uranus probe hoping to be treated with some dignity, the responses were not entirely devoted to butt jokes. Several suggestions drew on mythology and offered names more fitting for a spacecraft designed to explore an ice giant.

Odin was among the favorites. In the suggestion’s mythological connection, Odin was the Norse god who led Asgard to defeat the Frost Giants, giving the name a clear link to the frozen world the mission would investigate.

Boreas was another favored proposal. As the Greek god of the north wind and the bringer of winter, Boreas also offered an appropriately cold association without turning the spacecraft into the punchline before it had even launched.

The contrast was stark. On one side stood Odin and Boreas, names carrying mythological weight, while on the other were Suppository, Proby McProbeface and a pair of aggressively constructed acronyms that ensured nobody could miss the joke.

For those still determined to give an official space object a silly name, another opportunity was available. People could enter to name one of the exoplanets that JWST would explore that year, raising the delightful possibility of eventually meeting Exoplanet McExoplanetface.