#27 Mike:
The craters were not named by NASA; they were named by the International Astronomical Union. NASA may well have proposed honouring the astronauts, but the IAU had to approve the proposal. See comment 16 for why the names were applied to craters, as opposed to any other lunar features.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=9821

from a comment & link (#41) on the last thread on this* by Chris Winter. Excerpt from that :

The whole idea started a month or so ago. I was sitting in a press conference at the Department of the Interior in Washington D.C., where Columbia Peak was formally dedicated to the crew of STS-107. This peak is adjacent to Challenger Peak on Kitt Carson Mountain in Colorado.
Astronaut Scott Parazynski had come up with the idea of naming an adjacent peak in honor of the Columbia crew. Parazynski recalled how he and some friends had climbed Challenger Peak some years ago and had erected 7 small stone piles – or cairns – in memory of Challenger’s crew. As I heard this an idea hit me: to mark significant navigation points on Devon Island with inukshuks and dedicate one to each member of Columbia’s crew.

The writer there, Keith Cowing, went on to carry that plan through on the arctic Devon Island. That linked item is well worth a read.

Thanks for that Chris Winter, posted again here for those who might’ve missed it first time round.

———-
* Apollo 1, Challenger, Columbia, and those who sacrifice for the stars, January 27th, 2011 9:45 AM linked above in the first sentence of the opening article by the BA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_Hills_from_MER-A_landing_site_PIA05200_br2.jpg

&

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Hills_(Mars)

&

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_(rover)#Landing_site

&

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

All are good and appropriate choices and good ways to honour those who willingly lost their lives for the exploration and better understanding of the universe in my view.

There are the Columbia hills on Mars near the Spirit rover landed site and subsequently some (all?) of those were explored by that rover.

Incidentally, for those who don’t know or have forgotten, the Pathfinder martian landing site explored by the Sojourner rover was named the Carl Sagan Memorial station and the NEAR mission to asteroid 433 Eros was renamed the NEAR Shoemaker in honour of asteroid scientist Eugene Shoemaker.

Anyone know if there are also any asteroids named after these heroes as well? If not, methinks, there should be.

@10. IVAN3MAN_AT_LARGE : Excellent news! I’ve missed you & been wondering what’s happened to you. Glad to have you back.

Me too. It’s my personal equivalent of the death of JFK! It’s a cliche among my parents’ generation, that everyone remembers what they were doing when they heard the news that Kennedy was dead. Well, Challenger is like that for me; 25 years on, I remember it vividly, and can remember every detail of what I was doing and how I heard the news – even though what I was doing was absolutely mundane and ordinary. It’s something I can never forget.

#5 sHx:
Names for lunar and planetary features are not regarded as “official”, unless approved by the IAU. All proposed names have to be submitted with citations to justify them. The IAU has specific rules about what kind of names are and aren’t allowed; examples of those which aren’t are the names of recent political or military leaders ( which could be considered controversial ), and names which are of great significance only to a single nation. I hardly think that the people killed in space – both American and Russian – fall into that latter category; they are as worthy of memorials as any of the scientists honoured on the Moon.
Oh, and there is also a rule that ( unlike the naming of asteroids ) no-one can be honoured on the Moon during their lifetime; they have to be dead for at least three years before they can be considered. There are a very small handful of exceptions to this rule; the only ones I know of are the Apollo 11 astronauts.

I remember where I was exactly on the day Challenger blew up. In the Det 550 student lounge at RPI.

Off Topic: Oh, Dr. Plait, saw this LOLcat and thought of you: http://afterdark.icanhascheezburger.com/2011/01/30/funny-pictures-astrology-cat/

There are not many things left anonymus on the moon I guess, to be named after astronauts. Not to mention that it has ..craters mainly. I guess all the important stuff has been named before since its the easiest to explore (with the eye) in detail object in the night sky. (I remember seeing a very detailed map with names, back a while ago)

BTW, have the Russians, Chinese and Europeans agreed to the new names or is this a unilateral move?

According to Wikipedia, crater nomenclature — like planetary_nomenclature — is governed by the International Astronomical Union (yeah, the same guys who decided that Pluto is not a planet), and this listing only includes features that are officially recognized by that scientific society.

(Yeah, you guys, I’m Back!)

Yes, they look like domes instead of craters as a result of optical illusion. This particular optical illusion comes a lot on BA. See this for example:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/02/01/terra-spots-an-impact-on-um-terra/

In this particular instance, I don’t mind if the craters look like domes… for obvious reasons.

BTW, have the Russians, Chinese and Europeans agreed to the new names or is this a unilateral move?

It’s all in the light. There are some hills just up and to the right of the McAuliffe crater. Note the bright slopes on the left and the shadows on the right, especially the deep shadow at the far right where a hill is cut by a steep cliff. All the craters have the shadows on the left, where the sunlight (coming from the left) doesn’t reach.

BTW, mou aresei to website sas. (Signomi yia tin kaki ellinika mou.)