Uwingu Mars Crater Project Awards Grant to Students for the Exploration and Development of Space

BOULDER, Colo. - March 18, 2014 - PRLog -- Space funding company Uwingu announced today a grant to the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space chapter at the University of Colorado (CUSEDS). Uwingu’s grant to CUSEDS comes from funds raised from the public naming craters on Uwingu’s new Mars map at www.uwingu.com. Uwingu has previously made grants to a wide range of organizations including Astronomers Without Border (AWB), 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 Crater Naming public engagement 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 CUSEDS.

Uwingu’s Mars map grandfathers in all the already named craters on Mars, opening the remainder up 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. To date, people from over 78 countries around the world have named about 8,000 features on Uwingu’s Mars map in the past three weeks. Earlier this month, the private Mars One humans to Mars project announced it will carry Uwngu’s new Mars map to Mars in 2018.

Dr. Alan Stern, the CEO of Uwingu added, “We’re very proud to award our first student grant from our latest project to SEDS students, an important university student organization dedicated to advancing space exploration, research, and education. 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 Map Crater Naming 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 50^th year of Mars exploration!”

Brandon Seifert, President of CUSEDS remarked, “To be able to work with Uwingu to promote space exploration is an opportunity that CUSEDS is thrilled about. We’re thankful for Uwingu’s generous grant and are excited to put it to use supporting local outreach initiatives, collegiate science experiments, and student/community events. Uwingu’s mission to become an impactful source of funding for scientific research, STEM education, student groups, and space-tech startups is both important and inspiring. CUSEDS is more than happy to now be a part of this larger effort and we look forward to helping as much as we can.”

Anyone around the world can participate Uwingu’s Mars Crater Map Naming Project at 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.

About CUSEDS: CUSEDS (CU Students for the Exploration and Development of Space) is a non-profit, student-operated space advocacy organization at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Led by a group of 13 students, CUSEDS reaches out directly to 450 space enthusiasts - students and community members alike. A part of the greater international collegiate group SEDS, CUSEDS hosts guest speakers, conducts research, organizes community and K-12 outreach events, helps students find internships and explore career paths, and strives to make space exploration an interesting and relevant issue to all. To learn more about CUSEDS, visit our website at www.cuseds.org.

For more information contact Brandon Seifert at cuseds@colorado.edu  and 612.723.1664. Follow CUSEDS on Twitter at BoulderSEDS; and like our page, CU SEDS, on Facebook.

For more information contact Alan Stern at stern@uwingu.com and 970-281-SKY1.Follow Uwingu on Twitter at UwinguSky; and friend Uwingu on Facebook.