Meet 'Commander Moonikin Campos,' NASA's 'Moonikin' Honoring Apollo 13 Hero

The public has spoken, and NASA's "Moonikin" has been given a name. The moon-bound mannequin is now named after a Mexican-American electrical engineer who played a key role in the Apollo 13 mission's successful return to Earth in 1970.

NASA asked the public for help in naming the Moonikin earlier this month. This mannequin will fly around the moon for the unmanned Artemis I mission earlier this month. Ace, Campos, Delos, Duhart, Montgomery, Rigel, Shackleton, and Wargo were among the contenders.

NASA got over 300,000 votes during the voting period. On Wednesday, the agency revealed that "Campos" had been picked as the winning name. It defeated "Delos," the other name in the competition's final bracket. Greek mythology says Delos is the island where Apollo and Artemis were born.

As a result, the Moonikin has been renamed "Commander Moonikin Campos." Campos will fly on the unmanned Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft in the Artemis I flight test. When NASA sends a crew to the moon, it will be equipped with several sensors that will help deliver all necessary data to the Artemis II.

It will sit in the pilot's seat, flanked by two female-bodied human torsos dubbed "Zohar" and "Helga," respectively, by the Israel Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center.

Who is Arturo Campos?

NASA said the selected name is in honor of Arturo Campos, whose contribution saved the Apollo 13 module after it experienced technical difficulties.

When the Apollo 13 mission was jeopardized by a punctured oxygen tank on April 13, 1970, Campos updated the contingency plan he had drafted "on the spot" to assist the crew in safely returning home.

Campos was born in 1934 in Laredo, Texas, to a Mexican-American family and had pondered following in his father's footsteps as an auto mechanic.

He used his electrical engineering knowledge on hundreds of projects during his career at NASA, eventually becoming one of the "go-to" individuals for the electrical system in the Apollo lunar modules.

Richard Nixon awarded Campos and other members of mission control the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their roles in the "successful failure" of Apollo 13.

"This contest, which is helping pave the way for a human return to the Moon, also honors an important individual in our NASA family — Arturo Campos," NASA's acting chief historian at Marshall Space Flight Center said in the NASA news release. "It is a fitting tribute that the data gained from Artemis I will help us prepare to fly astronauts — including the first woman and first person of color — to the Moon, where we will get ready for Mars."

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