Back when the idea of an Israel campus for The Master’s College was being dreamed up, we were tossing around different ideas for names. My offering was rejected: Middle Eastern Center of Christian Activity (MECCA). Instead, Greg Behle’s idea became the identity of our school: Israel Bible Extension (IBEX). Besides the fact that the two descriptors state our two primary subjects, IBEX is a suitable name because of the animal that climbs the hills of Israel (Ps 104:18). Our students prove every semester why such an adventuresome creature is a suitable mascot.
Last month, NASA decided to send forth its own IBEX mission:
A satellite that will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space has been selected as part of NASA’s SmallExplorer program. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission will belaunched in 2008.
IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the SolarSystem. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with thematerial between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atomimagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space.
The website is here: http://www.ibex.swri.edu/
That doesn’t seem like a bad project to share a name with.