Contests: Name Cassini’s final phase + The 2014 Mars Society poster winner

The Planetary Society opens a new contest to provide a cool name for the orbital gymnastics the Cassini spacecraft will do in the final phase of its mission at Saturn : Help name the last phase of the Cassini mission! – The Planetary Society

The name “proximal orbits” is a Vulcan-sounding phrase, all logic and science. But getting this science is going to take navigational bravery of which Captain Kirk would be proud. To help the public understand just how cool this part of the mission is going to be, the Cassini team is asking the public to learn about Cassini’s final phase and then weigh in on a name for the final phase that has more punch to it. You can either cast a vote for one of the team’s suggestions, or write in your own.

Meanwhile, the Mars Society selects a winner of its poster contest:

Winner of 2014 Mars Society Poster Contest Announced 

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2014 Mars Society Poster Contest is Scott Porter, a Ph.D. student studying architecture at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Each participant (12 in total) in this year’s competition was required to submit a poster design that best represented the theme – ‘Blazing the Path to Mars’ – for the 17th Annual International Mars Society Convention, to be held August 7-10 in League City, Texas (just outside Houston).

In addition, the Mars Society would like to express its appreciation to the second and third place winners – Jamie Polancic and Miguel Cooper (respectively). The organization would also like to recognize two additional artists for honorable mention – Katarina Eriksson Marka and Joseph Sweeney.

To view the winning poster as a PDF document, please click here.