rxk14007の日記： NASAが小惑星 1999 RQ36 の名前を募集

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/sep/HQ_12-302_Asteroid_Naming_Contest.html

WASHINGTON -- Students worldwide have an opportunity to name an asteroid from which an upcoming NASA mission will return samples to Earth.
 
Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission is called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). Samples returned from the primitive surface of the near-Earth asteroid currently called (101955) 1999 RQ36 could hold clues to the origin of the solar system and organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth. NASA also is planning a crewed mission to an asteroid by 2025. A closer scientific study of asteroids will provide context and help inform this mission.

はやぶさの目的地だったイトカワの場合は探査機打ち上げ後の命名だったのに、ずいぶんと気が早いな。
全世界の学生から募集するとのことなので、日本の学生が提案した名前が採用されるチャンスがあるかも。