Uwingu to Beam Almost 90,000 Messages to Mars on Friday

BOULDER, Colo. - Nov. 24, 2014 - PRLog -- Boulder, Colorado—24 November 2014—Uwingu will launch a radio transmission to Mars on Friday, November 28^th, sending almost 90,000 names, messages, and pictures from people on Earth. This is the first time messages from people on Earth have been transmitted to Mar by radio.

The transmission, part of Uwingu’s “Beam Me to Mars” project, celebrates the 50^th anniversary of the 28 November 1964 launch of NASA’s Mariner 4 mission—the first successful mission to explore Mars. The transmission will begin just after 3 pm Eastern Time in the US on Friday November 28^th, and will be repeated twice.

Uwingu’s unique Beam Me to Mars project is hosted at http://www.uwingu.com. Included in the messages being to Mars are the logos of over 25 space corporations and other organizations that supported the project. Also included are messages from a variety of celebrities, including:

*) Motion picture actors Seth Green and wife Clare Grant
*) Star Trek actor George (“Sulu”) Takei and husband Brad Takei
*) Bill Nye, The Science Guy
*) Former International Space Station commander and media star, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield
*) Commercial astronaut Richard Garriott
*) Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver
*) Pulitzer winning author and playwright Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter, Longitudes)
*) Author and screenwriter Homer Hickam (The Rocket Boys, October Sky)

Uwingu’s ‘Beam Me’ transmission will be sent to Mars at a rate of 1 million bits per second on November 28^th by Universal Space Network. The messages will travel there at the speed of light—arriving at Mars just 15 minutes after they are sent. Copies of all the messages will also be delivered to NASA Headquarters and Congress—both in Washington, D.C., as well as to the United Nations in New York City.

Like all Uwingu projects, proceeds from Beam Me to Mars contribute to The Uwingu Fund for space research and education grants.

Uwingu founder and CEO, Dr. Alan Stern is available for interviews about the project this week. Contact him via stern@uwingu.com.

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About Uwingu. Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili, and is pronounced “oo-wing-goo”) was founded in 2012 and consists of a team of leading astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives and educators. Uwingu is a for-profit company dedicated to creating new ways for people to personally connect with space exploration and education while also raising funds to support non-profit organizations working space exploration and astronomy. A pioneer in this industry, Uwingu is currently creating the first crowd-sourced map of Mars. Since the project began in February 2014, individuals have named over 13,000 craters and The Uwingu Fund has already allocated over $100,000 for grants. Visit Uwingu’s website to learn more at www.uwingu.com.