Star Lore Stars and Constellations In modern Technology and Society

Gemini The Gemini spacecraft was the center part of NASA's second human spaceflight program. It was named after the "Twin" constellation as it carried a two-astronaut crew. Between 1965 and 1966, Gemini spacecraft carried sixteen individual astronauts on ten missions to low Earth orbit. Source:Wikipedia

Rendezvous of Gemini 6A and 7, December 1965 Source: Wikipedia

Hydra The Toyota Alphard, manufactured since 2002, is a minivan named after the star Alphard (α Hyd). Source:Wikipedia

Toyota Alphard Source: Wikipedia

Lyra Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra was the first star to have a car named after it. The French Facel Vega was manufactured from 1954 to 1964. Source:Wikipedia

Facel Vega Source: Wikipedia

In 1971, Cevrolet launched the Chevrolet Vega,which was manufactured until 1977. Source:Wikipedia

Chevrolet Vega Coupe Source: Wikipedia

Milky Way In Chinese, the Milky Way is called Tianhe, written 天 河. One of several translation for Tianhe is "Joining of the Heavens." For that reason, the name was chosen for the core module of the planned Chinese Modular Space Station. The core model is scheduled for launch in April 2021. Eventually, it will connect two space station modules, a manned spacecraft and a cargo spacecraft. Source: Asia Times

Artist's concept of the Chinese modular space station Sources: Asia Times

Tianhe is also the name of two Chinese super computers, Tianhe-1 and Tianhe-2.

Orion The Orion spacecraft is a partially reusable space craft to be used in NASA's human spaceflight programs. The first manned flight of the Orion spacecraft is expected to take place around 2023. Source:Wikipedia

Orion Spacecraft Source: space.com

Pleiades In Japanese, the Pleiades are called 昴 Subaru, meaning "coming together" or "cluster." As such, they have given their name to the Subaru car manufacturer, whose logo incorporates six stars to represent the five companies that merged into one. Source: Wikipedia

Subaru Logo Source: Wikipedia

Ursa Major Qixingtan (The Pond of Seven Stars), is a park in the Chinese City Guiyang. The park featurs seven lakes, named after the seven stars of the Big Dipper: Tianshu Lake (α UMa), Tianxuan Lake (β UMa), Tianji Lake (γ UMa), Tianquan Lake (δ UMa) Yuhengtan ((ε UMa) Kaiyangtan (ζ UMa) and Yaoguangtan (η UMa). Source: trip.com

Qixingtan Park; trip.com

In Japanese, the Big Dipper is called Hokuto Shichisei, "Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper," which is written 北斗七星 in both Chinese and Japanese. Hokuto-kun, named after the Big Dipper is the mascot of the Hokkaido Prefectural Police. He’s a hybrid of a rabbit, an owl, a fox, a horse, and a human. Sources: Mondo Mascots, Hokkaido Prefectural Police

Hokuto-kun; Mondo Mascots

In Chinese, the Big Dipper is known as Běidǒu Qīxīng, the "Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper," which is written 北斗七星. The Chinese satellite navigation system BeiDou, providing global coverage for timing and navigation, is named after the "Northern Dipper". Source: Wikipedia

BeiDou Satellite Navigation System Source: spacenews.com

The National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) is North_Korea's official space agency of North Korea. The emblem of the NADA was instituted in 2014; according to NADA, it represents its character, mission, position and development prospects. Also according to NADA, the Great Bear reflects the will of the space scientists of the DPRK to glorify Kim Il Sung's and Kim Jong Il's Korea as a space power. Source: collectspace.com

NADA; collectspace.com

The Big Dipper can be found in company logos all over the world. Below is a small sample, selected merely for their artistic value and NOT for the company's product.

Big Dipper Food

CLYW Yo-Yo

Big Dipper Events

Pennsylvania Dark Sky Park

Big Dipper Co. Wedding Films

dribbble.com

Ursa Brewing Company

BrandCrowd

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