DAMA Mission name and logo
Elementary and middle school students all over Italy were challenged to come up with a name and logo for Roberto Vittori's mission aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. More than 2000 suggestions from around 200 schools were received.
In addition to providing Roberto’s third trip to the International Space Station, STS-134 carried the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. This fundamental instrument gave the hint to a young pupil to use the initial letters of 'dark matter' to form the winning acronym DAMA.
Following the same idea, an 11-year-old girl from Modena drew the logo that Roberto wore on his space suit. AMS-02 inspired her to sketch an antimatter particle emerging from the trail of the Space Shuttle, with the Italian flag in the background.
