Uwingu Mars Mapping Project Announces Grant to Astronomers Without Borders

BOULDER, Colo. - March 10, 2014 - PRLog -- Space startup Uwingu announced today a grant to Astronomers Without Borders (AWB), a global community of astronomy enthusiasts, educators, and others around the world interested in astronomy and the sky. Uwingu’s grant to AWB comes from funds raised in the past two weeks from Uwingu’s new Mars Crater Mapping project at www.uwingu.com.

The project was established to help create a $10M fund for Uwingu grants to support a wide range of new space projects with individual space researchers and educators hurt by budget cuts, as well as space companies and organizations like AWB. Uwingu has previously made grants to a wide range of organizations including the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), the Galileo Teachers Training Program (GTTP), the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and the Mars One project.

Uwingu’s Mars map grandfathers in all the already named craters on Mars,  opening up the remainder for naming by people around the globe. Prices for naming craters vary, depending on the size of the crater, and begin at $5 dollars.  Uwingu makes a shareable Web link and a naming certificate available to each crater namer for each newly named crater.

Mike Simmons, President of AWB remarked, “Astronomers Without Borders is honored to receive this grant based on Uwingu's innovative Mars Crater Mapping project. Uwingu's mission of public engagement matches ours, and we encourage our members to participate in this project to publicly fund space exploration and education.”

Dr. Alan Stern, the CEO of Uwingu added, “We’re very proud to award the first grant from our latest project to Astronomers Without Borders, an international organization dedicated to educating the public about astronomy. Given the popularity we’re seeing from people who want to help name craters on our new Mars map, we expect to generate many more grants as our Mars Mapping Project moves toward its goal of completing the naming of the over 500,000 unnamed, scientifically cataloged craters on Mars by the end of 2014, the 50th year of Mars exploration.

Anyone around the world can participate The Mars Crater Naming Project at Uwingu’s web site, www.uwingu.com.

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About Uwingu: Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili, and is pronounced “oo-wing-oo”) was formed by a team of leading astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives, and educators. The company includes space historian and author Andrew Chaikin, space educator Dr. Emily CoBabe-Ammann, author and former museum science director Dr. David Grinspoon, planet hunter Dr. Geoff Marcy, planetary scientist and aerospace executive Dr. Teresa Segura, planetary scientist and former NASA science director Dr. Alan Stern, planetary scientist and CEO of the Planetary Science Institute, Dr. Mark Sykes, and space artists Jon Lomberg and Dan Durda. In 2012, Uwingu successfully concluded one of the 25 largest Indiegogo crowd-funding campaigns ever to launch an ongoing series of public engagement projects. Visit Uwingu’s web site at www.uwingu.com to learn more and join in the public naming of planets around other stars.

About Astronomers Without Borders: Astronomers Without Borders connects people worldwide through innovative programs that are accessible to everyone regardless of geography and culture. Combining local events with online technology and a global community, Astronomers Without borders is a leader in promoting understanding and peaceful international relations, while also supporting outreach and education in astronomy. For more information visit: www.astronomerswithoutborders.org.

For more information contact Alan Stern (stern@uwingu.com and 970-281-SKY1) or Mike Simmons (mikes@astronomerswithoutborders.org, and 818-597-0223).

Follow Uwingu on Twitter at UwinguSky; and friend Uwingu on Facebook.