Mars Landing (credit: Dan Durda)

Funding great science and science education doesn’t take a lot of money, but it requires someone to make the choice to fund science.

At Uwingu, we are the men and women who’ve decided to turn our profits into understanding of our universe.

We’ve designed software products that will help people relate better to the sky and to space.

We will market these products globally and use the proceeds after expenses to create something we call “The Uwingu Fund” for space research and education. We hope sales on Uwingu’s products will raise millions—and perhaps even tens of millions—annually—for The Uwingu Fund.

You might ask, how can millions or tens of millions make a difference when NASA spends billions on space projects every year?

While it’s true that NASA spends billions on space science, only about 10% of that money gets into the hands of researchers and educators. The rest buys rockets, spacecraft, and ground systems – a massive infrastructure that could be used by more people if funding for those people can be found.

Today, only a few hundred million dollars is being spent to fund the researchers and educators who make the discoveries from NASA’s missions, and who communicate this new science to school kids and the public.

Apophis Close Approach in 2029 (credit:  Dan Durda)

With the Uwingu Fund, we will support and hopefully grow this community of researchers and educators by creating a new funding stream outside of NASA.

Never before has there been any significant source of non-governmental funds for space research and education. We plan to create just such a fund, diversifying the funding base for space researchers and educators, and creating a private sector adjunct to federal funding.

We’ll offer researchers and educators the opportunity to propose projects, and just like other funding agencies, we’ll use peer review panels to select the best projects to be funded.

By raising millions to tens of millions each year through product sales, and by using that money to fund science, we can and will make a clear difference—funding new projects that otherwise would not get started, and backstopping existing projects that might otherwise falter under budget cuts.

We have chosen to make difference.