MARS ONE MISSION MAPPING OUT PLAN TO SELL SITE NAMES
If the Mars One mission to put a permanent human settlement on Mars succeeds, its pioneers could be carrying a map that Earthbound folks helped create.
And the work of building that map now comes with a holidayseason tie-in.
Uwingu, a Boulder-based company aimed at helping people connect with space exploration and astronomy, has created what it bills as a “worldwide, first-ever” opportunity to celebrate the holidays by naming a feature onMars as a gift— for as little as $5.
Uwingu’s CEO and founder, Alan Stern, acknowledged that commercial ventures offering naming rights in space are nothing new and that some of them are “scams.”
Uwingu’s association with the Mars One project, he said, sets its program apart.
“The legitimacy is that this is the map that they will use on all of their missions, and, furthermore, they are going to physically carry this map to the surface of Mars, which makes it really neat for people who are participating,” Stern said. “And these are not naming rights on Mars. They are naming rights on the map that Mars One will use.”
Mars One is the not-for-profit brainchild of Dutch engineer and entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, who intends to land an initial crew of four people on the Martian surface in 2025, the first step in building a permanent human settlement on Mars. Additional crews of four will then depart forMars every two years. Last year, Mars One selected Lockheed Martin to develop a mission concept study for its Mars robotic lander, slated for a 2018 launch.