Along with the rest of humanity, I’m in awe of the photos, videos, and sounds of Mars being sent to Earth by Perseverance. Amazing how a super smart group of dedicated humans plus enough capital can send a robot to another planet to take pictures and inspire memes.

Then I realized something odd about all the Mars rover names, which are:

• Sojourner - 1997

• Spirit - 2004

• Opportunity - 2004

• Curiosity - 2012

• Perseverance - 2020

All of these names are positive. Even the cool space helicopter is named Ingenuity! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for positivity and it pays to be optimistic when sending millions of dollars worth of robot to another planet, but why not call the helicopter Anxiety?

That’d be an apt name for a flying robot trying to navigate above an alien planet. And probably close to what emotion a person might feel while hovering over a foreign sphere. But, we don’t name exploratory vessels or warships after human hardships, only inspiring virtues, accomplished people, or gods:

• HMS Dauntless

• USS Intrepid

• USS Enterprise

• SS Triton

• SSBN George Washington Carver

What I wouldn’t give to see a Mars lander named Robin Williams, or a Navy Destroyer named the USS Junior Seau. Why not a Air Force bomber named the Carrie Fisher? She did not die by suicide, but fearlessly shared her experiences with mental illness and addiction. If that isn’t a great reason to name a jet, then being Leia Organa Skywalker sure should be enough.

I get not naming a battleship the USS Depression, there is something to be said about morale, and depression is a naturally tough name to rally excitement behind. I’d volunteer to serve on the USS Anthony Bourdain in a heartbeat. Plus, you know the galley would have to live up to the boat’s namesake.

We’re growing more conscientious as a society as individual stories of struggle and perseverance are shared with stories of struggle and loss. I feel a huge blow to the stigma of mental illness and suicide would be dealt if the next rover is named Bipolar, or the next carrier christened Chester Bennington.

What a testament to the human spirit it would be if Bipolar travels millions of miles to take photos of the ice caps on Mars. How awesome it would be if the Bennington blasted In The End while leaving port.

I used to hate my mental illnesses and my experiences with suicide. Understandable for sure, and my life has improved as I’ve come to view my moods, emotions, and thoughts as part of a whole compendium of human experiences that I’m fortunate to have.

We can do the same in a very public way if we declare the darker aspects of our nature more forcefully in how we name marvels of human engineering. These things get noticed, they get shared, and how wonderful it would be to a little kid experiencing anxiety to hear that a flying robot is taking pictures on Mars not in spite of the name Anxiety, but because of it.

The cover image from this week comes from Perseverance, and was voted on as the Image of the Week for March 21-27: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/image-of-the-week/