It is a bad idea to ask the public to name things. Just ask any sailor who was on the verge of serving on the good ship Boaty McBoatface. But here we are again (albeit in a less official capacity, as they may have discovered) after an unofficial Twitter account asked the Internet to name a probe that will soon explore Uranus.
The Uranus Orbiter and Probe is a NASA project that hopes to launch in the early 2030s. The mission would orbit Uranus for several years, possibly sending a probe down through its atmosphere. It could reveal a lot about the ice giant’s makeup, which is why such an important mission’s name should not be left to the public.
However, the Ice Giant Missions Twitter account asked its followers what the mission should be called.
With an official-looking poster image, some people misinterpreted the question to mean that NASA was asking the question. However, no trace of such a scheme can be found on any official NASA sites, and given that the mission has not yet been greenlit, it’s unlikely that they’d ask people to come up with inevitable butt jokes just yet.
Ice Giant Missions has shared some of the publishable naming suggestions received.
To be fair, some were quite creative and made good use of NASA’s love of acronyms and backronyms: A.N.U.S (Advanced New Uranus Space mission), and R.E.C.T.U.M (Research Education Charging Towards Uranus Mission) for example.
Some were more obvious: Operation Butt Plug, Pegassus, Seymore Butts and Suppository. Proby McProbeface of course made an entrance on the list.
Fortunately for the poor Uranus probe just begging to be taken seriously, there were actual suggestions that were more appropriate for the Uranus explorer. Odin, the Norse god who led Asgard to victory over the Frost Giants, and Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind and the bringer of winter, are two of our favorites.
If you really want to name an official space object something silly, you can enter to name one of the exoplanets that JWST will explore this year. Can’t wait to meet Exoplanet McExoplanetface.
READ MORE: New Images from NASA’s Juno Mission Reveals Jupiter’s Complex Colors
