DISCOVERY CHANNEL SAYS "NAME THAT ARM"
By Adnews Staff
Canadians are building a next-generation space arm for use on the planned international space station, and the Discovery Channel wants Canadians to pick a name for it. Discovery has secured the exclusive right from the Canadian Space Agency to hold a "Name the Space Arm" contest. The contest, backed by corporate sponsor AT&T Canada as well as Spar Aerospace and the CSA, will launch September 1 on the live season premiere of Discovery's flagship program, @discovery.ca, and run for eight weeks. The winner will be chosen by a panel of judges drawn from the companies involved. The grand prize is a trip for four to Florida to see a space shuttle launch. One hundred other prizes will be awarded randomly. The seven-jointed, 17 metre arm, technically referred to as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System, is being developed by Spar Aerospace and a nation-wide industrial team. It is to be the principle tool used to assemble the space station, scheduled for completion in 2002. "The new space arm is Canadian technological genius at its best: a best-in-the-world achievement for this country to celebrate. But it's hard to toast something called SSRMS. The contest will be a fun event with a historic result,'' said Discovery Channel president Trina McQueen.