http://www.marssociety.org/portal/groups/PR_MarketingTF/press-releases-1/mars-society-christens-201ccolbert-mars-desert-research-station201d/

“Stephen Colbert is clearly the greatest mind of our time,” said Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin. “Therefore it is only fitting that all of mankind’s extraterrestrial bases be named after him. We are grateful to have the opportunity to make MDRS the first. Indeed, in view of the near certainty of a successful Colbert presidential bid in 2012, the Mars Society is doubly delighted to be the first, as we have been assured that President Colbert will keep that fact in mind when it comes time to distribute his first ten trillion dollars of bailout funds to worthy recipients shortly after he takes office in January, 2013.”

So the next time, when Rush Limbaugh wins the naming contest, we’ll all tip our hats to the Rush-node, and do NASA reports on his show. What a concept! NASA will get loads of press, and the public will be highly enraged. Oops, I mean engaged.

This gets funnier by the hour.

You are missing the entire point put out by Rep Fattah. The fact that a comedian/satirist like Colbert could get several hundred thousand people to go to a NASA website to participate in the online poll in naming a section of the space station reveals the ways in which NASA can engage the public’s interest. NASA could collaborate with Colbert in naming the the node after him by having him do NASA reports on his show. Engaging the public and having people (I am talking adults here) interested in what NASA is doing results in greater support for more funding. That is the kind of outreach NASA needs.

But maybe you’re saying that we name an ISS node “Colbert” and older, more sophisticated people start caring about human space flight? In your dreams.

Of course, once Node 3 is named Colbert, a precedent is set, and that section of ISS won’t symbolize the excitement of human spaceflight, but rather why these kinds of contests will never happen again.

I still like the idea of a paper Stephen Colbert up there sharing smiles with a paper Chaka Fattah. The symbolism of that would be quite rich.

People aren’t interested in the MER rovers for their names – the pictures and science does that for them

If an appropriator really thinks that naming Node 3 after a comedian/satirist is the way to bring public interest to NASA’s program, then he’s frighteningly out of touch with the whole human space flight effort. In fact, giving a “node” a more inspirational name isn’t a particularly effective way to do it either.

I like giving names to robots that at least virtually expand our presence on other worlds. They are, as for Spirit and Opportunity, really extensions of us. We see things through their eyes as they travel around. Giving them names is something that really excites the Wall-E generation. I’m less excited about giving inspirational names to cans in space, except perhaps cans that take us places, as for the shuttles and space capsules. Explorers named their ships. Did they name the rooms in their huts?

NASA should go ahead and name Node 3 with some inspirational name that will be soon forgotten by the public, and just stick up a little photo of Steven Colbert on the inside wall as a cute satirical honorific to what some people oddly consider the “will of the people”. In fact, put of a picture of Rep. Fattah up there right next to that of Colbert so they can smile at each other, which is mainly what this is all about.