Why Apollo?

[gillianren]

Graham and I were watching Cosmos last night, and it referenced Operation Diana.  To which I replied, "That's what Apollo should have been called!"  This is a thing that's bothered me almost my whole life--why was the program of missions to the Moon named after the god of the Sun instead?

[Andromeda]

Yes, I know what you mean.

The program was named after the Greek god of light, music, and the sun by NASA manager Abe Silverstein, who later said that "I was naming the spacecraft like I'd name my baby."  Silverstein chose the name at home one evening, early in 1960, because he felt "Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program."

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program

[raven]

I always preferred Artemis to Diana, probably because Diana is a much more common name, and I like the way it sounds. When I think Diana I think the former Princess of Wales, not a badass virgin huntress.

[gillianren]

Well, yeah, I think Artemis would have been better, too.  But the point is, goddess of the Moon.

[raven]

Well, yeah, I think Artemis would have been better, too.  But the point is, goddess of the Moon.

True, though it was the early 60's. Calling it after a girl god would just have too many cooties. Still, Project Orion could have worked, though there already was one going at the time that would have potentially taken us far, far beyond the moon.

[smartcooky]

Perhaps they should have split the difference and called it "Project Selene"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selene

[johnbutcher]

Mercury; greek/roman mythology. Male God.

Gemini: same origin, twins, both male, Castor and Pollux.

Apollo; Male sun God, same origin. Given the culture of the late 50's/early 60's. Not a surprising choice?

Sloop

[johnbutcher]

Do not get me wrong, historically ( as far as I remember ) the moon has always been considered as a female symbol. However in more recent times it has been recognised that Selenes illumination is sunlight. Perhaps thence the association with Apollo and, so, given the male orientated society of the sixties, the inclination to follow Mercury and Gemini with another Male Greek/Roman name?

[raven]

Just out of curiosity, what was Operation Diana? I've tried googling, but all I can come up is stuff about the former princess.

[gillianren]

According to Cosmos, it was the first program to bounce radio waves off the Moon.  And, despite being in the '40s, they called it after a girl.  Yes, moonlight is really reflected sunlight, but I don't care.  All the justifications I've ever seen kind of gloss over the fact that it makes more sense to name the mission after a female than a male in this particular instance and they didn't do it.  "Oh, it was the times"--yeah, so was Operation Diana.

[darren r]

Because otherwise this site would be called DianaHoax and that would confuse Daily Express readers

[smartcooky]

Because otherwise this site would be called DianaHoax and that would confuse Daily Express readers

[Nowhere Man]

And nobody then would have been able to pronounce "Selene."  Just like today.

Fred

[Peter B]

Well, yeah, I think Artemis would have been better, too.  But the point is, goddess of the Moon.

Perhaps one way of looking at it was that Apollo (the god) went places in his chariot. Presumably a godess of the Moon just hung around on the Moon - not a good symbol when the astronauts were expected to return to Earth.

For me the vaguely amusing thing was reading how (I think it was) Silverstein pulled out his book of Greek mythology to make sure Apollo hadn't done anything inappropriate before making a final decision on the name of the project: symbolism was important even in such a thing as the name of the project.

ETA: The thing that bugs me about Apollo is that its logo seems back to front:



To me, the Earth should be on the left and the Moon on the right, meaning that the path from the Earth to the Moon is from left to right, the direction most people would draw the horizontal stroke of the letter A (and I say this as a leftie who draws the stroke from right to left!).

[gillianren]

No, Artemis had a chariot, too.  As for "inappropriate," depending on your standards, all Greek gods did inappropriate things.  Apollo tried to rape a woman who fled from him and begged her father, a river god, to turn her into a tree so Apollo couldn't get her.  After her father complied, Apollo cut off some of her branches and crowned himself with her--she was a laurel.