Uwingu Launches Public Project to Name All 500,000 Mapped Craters on Mars

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For years, space mission rover drivers have named craters on Mars and Apollo astronauts have named landing site landmarks on their Moon missions.

Now, through Uwingu, you can get involved in space exploration in a similar way—by helping to create a citizen’s Mars map with names for all of the approximately 500,000 largest unnamed craters on Mars—the most Earth-like planet in our solar system. But hurry, there are billions of people on Earth, many more than the number of mapped Martian craters!

Uwingu is proud to announce this opportunity to connect people to space exploration in a way never before possible.

Just think—over almost 50 years of Mars exploration, only about 15,000 features have been named on Mars by all the astronomers in the world. But over 500,000 Martian craters mapped by NASA and European space missions have no names. Uwingu’s web site now allows anyone to contribute to create a new, citizen’s map of Mars which names all those unnamed Martian craters!

Only imagination limits your naming choices. Names of Martian craters in this new Mars map can honor individuals, living or deceased, pets, places on Earth or in space, sports teams, musical groups, countries, fictional characters—its up to you.

Prices for naming craters vary depending on the size of the crater, and begin at just a few dollars.  Proceeds from the creation of Uwingu’s Mars crater map will, like other Uwingu products, help fuel The Uwingu Fund to provide grants for space research and education—meaning that with every name you contribute you’ll be helping to fuel future space activities.

Duplicate names are allowed in different Districts and Provinces, on Mars just as street names in different cities on Earth can be the same. So if someone has already used a name you want to use—no problem—just make sure the crater you name is in a different part of Mars than where someone else named a crater the same thing.

For each crater you name, you’ll receive an electronic certificate with your name and the date and details of the crater you named. These make valuable mementos for yourself, and unique gifts for people you may have honored with a place on Mars.

So spread the word! Uwingu is challenging people everywhere to pitch in and complete the naming of Mars’s 500,000 largest craters in this single year, 2014!

We hope to see your ideas on Mars, and soon!