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NASA Needs Your Help to Choose a Name for Its Artemis I Dummy

NASA is getting ready to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. Preparations for an uncrewed test flight dubbed "Artemis I" have already started. The agency recently shared images of its newly-assembled megarocket that will launch the Orion space capsule in November this year. The next step? NASA needs your help to pick a name for their Moonikin non-human passenger!
You can now name NASA's new manikin that will fly aboard the Artmis I 1 photo
Photo: NASA
NASA will send a very important passenger on the Artemis I flight test as part of its efforts to understand how to best protect passengers for Artemis II, the first crewed mission to return humans to the Moon.

A suited manikin (or human anatomical model) will embark on the Orion spacecraft when it launches aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket later this year for the spacecraft's first mission around the Moon. The Moonikin will be equipped with sensors to provide data on what crew members may experience during the flight.

It will serve as the spacecraft's commander and will wear a first-generation Orion Crew Survival System suit, a spacesuit that astronauts will wear during launch, entry, and other dynamic stages of their flight. The manikin's seat will have two sensors, one under the headrest and one behind the seat, that will record acceleration and vibration throughout the mission.

However, there is one thing missing here — the name. For that, NASA is hosting a naming contest beginning Wednesday, June 16th, in which anyone can take part to choose how the dummy will be called. There are eight options from which you can pick.

Each name proposed reflects an essential part of NASA's past or a reference to the Artemis program:
  • ACE (Artemis Crew Explorer)
  • Campos: NASA engineer Arturo Campos who played a crucial role in bringing the Apollo 13 crew safely back home
  • Delos: the island where the twin gods Apollo and Artemis were born.
  • Duhart: Dr. Irene Duhart Long, the first African American woman to serve as a Senior Executive Service member at Kennedy Space Center
  • Montgomery: Julius Montgomery, the first African American ever hired at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
  • Rigel: a star found in the Orion constellation
  • Shackleton: a crater on the Moon named after the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton
  • Wargo" which is a reference to Michael Wargo, who was a leading contributor to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

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About the author: Florina Spînu
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Florina taught herself how to drive in a Daewoo Tico (a rebadged Suzuki Alto kei car) but her first "real car" was a VW Golf. When she’s not writing about cars, drones or aircraft, Florina likes to read anything related to space exploration and take pictures in the middle of nature.
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