Move over Eagle, the Altair has landed.
NASA today introduced a new name and logo for its nextgeneration lunar lander, which was previously referred to as the Lunar SurfaceAccess Module, or LSAM for short.
"That's the name they chose," said Jeff Hanley,NASA's Constellation Program manager, under which Altair falls. "We canstop calling it LSAM or esoteric things like that."
"Altair is the brightest star in the constellation Aquilaand is the twelfth brightest star in the night sky," wrote Lauri Hansen,NASA's Altair project manager, in an e-mail sent to Hanley this morning, a copyof which was obtained by collectSPACE.com. "The word 'Altair'finds its origins in Arabic and is derived from a phrase that means 'the flyingone'," she continued.
"In Latin, 'Aquila' means Eagle, tying our new landerto the historic Apollo 11 Eagle," concluded Hansen, referring to the vehiclethat brought mankind's first two men to the lunar surface in July 1969.
The Altair project logo emphasizes thatconnection, using the major design element from the Apollo 11 patch as its own.Both emblems depict a bald eagle clasping an olive branch in its talons, animage chosen by Michael Collins, Apollo 11's command module pilot, based on aphoto in a 1965 book published by National Geographic.
"We needed something simpler, yet something whichunmistakably said peaceful lunar landing by the United States," Collinswrote in his 1974 book, "Carrying the Fire". "Jim Lovell, Neil[Armstrong's] backup, introduced an American eagle into the conversation. Ofcourse! What better symbol -- eagles landed, didn't they? At home I skimmedthrough my library and finally found what I wanted in a National Geographicbook on birds: a bald eagle, landing gear extended, wings partially folded,coming in for a landing. I traced it on a piece of tissue paper and sketched inan oblique view of a pockmarked lunar surface," wrote Collins.
The Altair version of Collins' eagle greatly simplifies thedetail of the Apollo artwork and reverses the direction that the bird islanding on the lunar surface.
The newer logo also spells out the name "Altair"in a font that is reminiscent of how "Apollo" appears on its projectemblem.
Under NASA's Constellation program, Orion crew vehicles andAltair lunar landers will launch to Earth orbit on Ares I and Ares V rocketsrespectively. Like the patches for the other initiatives, the Altair insigniaincludes 10 stars in its background, a symbol previously attributed to each ofthe 10 NASA nationwide centers working to return astronauts to the Moon.
In June 2006, NASA revealed the name and logo for its newlaunch vehicles, Ares I and V. Less than a month later,collectSPACE.com was the first to report the title and emblemgiven to the crew exploration vehicle Orion, as was confirmed by NASA in August 2006.
NASA previously applied "Altair" as aninternal-use only "notional" title for the Orion crew vehicle. Theagency has also used the name for a high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV).
- VIDEO: Moon 2.0: Join the Revolution
- VIDEO: A New Era of Exploration with NASA's Orion and Ares
- IMAGES: NASA's Next Spaceship
Copyright 2007 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
