Star Trek

USS RODDENBERRY

TO HONOR GENE!

USS James Tiberius Kirk

Duh... ENTERPRISE!

It's a science endeavor and we've already had an Enterprise and a Voyager, so I nominate Spock or Janeway as they were both science officers before becoming an ambassador and captain/admiral...Roddenberry would be cool too.  Or in true Trek fashion...Utopia Planetia...lol.

How about The Bradbury Expedition. He did write The Martian Chronicals after all.

Indeed! USS RODDENBERRY!!!

What about the space probe featured in that voyager episode where the black guy got sucked into a subspace blob?

Nice sentiments, but I'd go with something more appropriate like Ares 1

Ares! Mars is named after the Roman god of war. Mars was originally a gentler god, of agriculture and fruitfulness. When Mars became a god of war, he took on the attributes and legends of the Greek god of war, Ares. I think Ares is fitting!

Exactly

Ask the Chinese, they are the only ones who can afford to go there.

Good point! I found this on another forum:

Mars is named after the Roman god of war. In Babylonian astronomy, the planet was named after Nergal, their deity of fire, war, and destruction, most likely due to the planet's reddish appearance. When the Greeks equated Nergal with their god of war, Ares, they named the planet Ἄρεως ἀστἡρ (Areos aster), or "star of Ares". Then, following the identification of Ares and Mars, it was translated into Latin as stella Martis, or "star of Mars", or simply Mars. The Greeks also called the planet Πυρόεις Pyroeis meaning "fiery". In Hindu mythology, Mars is known as Mangala (मंगल). The planet is also called Angaraka in Sanskrit, after the celibate god of war, who possesses the signs of Aries and Scorpio, and teaches the occult sciences. The planet was known by the Egyptians as "Ḥr Dšr" or "Horus the Red". The Hebrews named it Ma'adim (מאדים) "the one who blushes"; this is where one of the largest canyons on Mars, the Ma'adim Vallis, gets its name. It is known as al-Mirrikh in both Arabic and Persian, and Merih in Turkish. The etymology of al-Mirrikh is unknown. Ancient Persians named it Bahram, the Zoroastrian god of faith. Ancient Turks called it Sakit. The Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese cultures refer to the planet as 火星, or the fire star, a name based on the ancient Chinese mythological cycle of Five elements.

The Fire Star aspect of it seems very common. Everybody can see it is slightly reddish. From those mentioned above, I rather like the name Mangala. And I can't pronounce 火星 !!!

Or DS9

I am completely impartial on this because I've never seen DS9 so I don't know yet if I love or hate it. All Trek is good Trek.

Be careful what you wish for - remember there was a huge campaign to name the first space shuttle Enterprise, which duly happened - but the 'Enterprise' never flew in space, it was a test version...

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

If it is named Enterprise, then there could be some major problems for ST fans.  All of those ST: Enterprise bashers saying that it doesn't fit into canon simply because of the NX 01 wasn't shown in ST:TMP (I know there are other reasons, but that is what many of them rally around) will have a big problem trying to cope with TOS not fitting in with reality.