Uncrewed Spacecrafts

Posted under Tags

BUR #53117 is pending approval.

create alias deep_space_probe -> uncrewed_spacecraft
create alias satellite -> uncrewed_spacecraft

Space probes and satellites aren't visually different enough to warrant separate tags; however, I think it would irritate a small subsection of users if deep_space_probe was aliased to satellite. Both space probes and satellites are known as uncrewed spacecrafts, which is a decently descriptive name for them.

Uncrewed spacecraft is an overly broad term and the Wikipedia article makes it clear there is a lot of overlap between what it calls "uncrewed" and crewed spacecraft as it includes the Buran which while it flew one time uncrewed was intended to be a crewed vehicle. It also includes dual purpose craft such as the SpaceX Dragon 2 and Dream Chaser because they can both be a crewed spacecraft or an uncrewed cargo spacecraft.

I also think calling them spacecraft is also incredibly misleading because while they're technically spacecraft, the term "spacecraft" usually would make people visualize crewed vehicles which tend to be visually distinct from what most people would immediately visualize with the term "satellite." We're also using a common usage of satellite, so it's odd to try and alias to a more technical term when as a technical term satellite would also include things like manned space stations.

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