AD ASTRA: Classics in Space

Years ago, when I was teaching at my previous school, the 8th-grade science teacher learned about a program called NearLink, associated with NASA somehow. To be honest, I don't even remember what it was about, but she asked the other 8th-grade teachers to develop cross-curricular activities that could be incorporated into the space science lessons. Once done, the kids got to visit the Louisiana Art and Science Museum for a hands-on mission. I thought it sounded super cool, and even though I was a Latin teacher, I committed to finding a way to incorporate Latin into space. It ended up being an amazing rabbit hole experience for my teaching because I didn't realize I'd find so much stuff!

It started with my discovery of the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature by the International Astronomical Union. This organization, founded in 1919, oversees the naming of planetary features and new planetary bodies. Its gazetteer is a wonder of words - it shows all the named features of every planet, moon, asteroid, etc., and explains where that name came from! It was here that I discovered that all the planetary features of the moon are named in LATIN!! And that the moons of Jupiter are all named after the female victims of Zeus.

The Gazetteer led me to look into the mythology-themed naming of NASA missions. During that research (and trust that it was hard - the internet was just getting going in schools when I was doing this work), I found another fabulous resource: an entire book called Origin of NASA Names where I learned why early NASA engineers oddly chose the name "Apollo" for missions to the moon.

NASA artists included mythological images on some of their patches as well. The NASA Mission Patch Book has pristine images of all the patches and an explanation from astronauts of why they designed them the way they did. There's even some careless Latin on one! (Apollo XIII with "ex luna, scientia")

But hands down, the coolest classical connection I found to space was the art of Robert McCall. I had visited the Louisiana Art and Science Museum one day around the time of our school project and saw the most amazing, otherworldly paintings in an exhibit that featured his art. In many of his paintings, I saw classical columns, temples, obelisks, pyramids, and even famous ancient Greek scientists. I learned that the artist had painted the murals in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and had done patch artwork for NASA. Since I couldn't find his art online, I called the museum to see if they had more information about the artist. When I told the museum director about my classics in space project, she asked if I might want to talk to the artist himself. What?! I thought. "That would be amazing!" I remember squeaking out to her over the phone. She called the next day to tell me that he had agreed to speak with me, and then she gave me his phone number. I called him with such trepidation, but it was thrilling to speak with him. He answered my questions thoughtfully and even offered to send me some slides of paintings. And he did!! I still have those slides to this day.

I presented the lessons I created for the NearLink unit at the 2000 annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Knoxville, TN, "Ad Astra: Using Latin in a Cross-Curricular Unit on Planetary Nomenclature." There, I was approached by an online company that wanted to publish the project on its Website. It eventually won an award for creativity. Then the local newspaper, the Baton Rouge Advocate, called to interview me about the award and project. It yielded a large full-page interview with pictures of the students' work - they designed mission patches and wrote Latin mottos for the mission. 

The new Artemis missions have caused me to reminisce about that project so many years ago. Maybe it's time for a revisit! In case your students are obsessed with Artemis and the new moon missions, I've put together this list of resources. Please use it and enjoy the magic of classics in space.