In February, Uwingu, a small, for-profit company with a mission to create new ways for people to personally connect with space exploration and astronomy and, in turn, raise funds for space exploration, research, and education grants, announced its Mars Crater Naming Project as its latest money-raising initiative. The project invites users to stake claim to one (or many) of the approximately 500,000 unnamed but scientifically cataloged craters on the Red Planet (the 15,000 features already with names have been grandfathered onto the Uwingu Mars map). For anywhere from $5 for a crater less than a kilometer across to $5,000 and more for one rivaling the size of Copernicus, users can make an impact with any donation given. The new map of Mars will be sent to the Red Planet by the Mars One project.
The project has seen great success so far, and now Uwingu has provided Astronomy with a great holiday gift to pass on to our readers. Four lucky winners will receive a $50 gift certificate to go toward naming Mars craters. The winners can use the money as they wish, whether naming one $50 crater or 10 $5 craters.
To enter, you just need to provide a name and email address, as well as one name you would use for a crater on Mars. Staff members at Astronomy will then choose our four favorite names to win the gift certificates. But hurry! The contest closes January 2.
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