Name the Biggest Unnamed Crater on Mars

Catch the Action on an eBay Auction
to Benefit the National Space Society

Okay, now this one’s pretty amazing. There’s a huge and anonymous crater on maps of Mars that’s just crying out for a name. In true entrepreneurial fashion, Uwingu and eBay are partnering to auction off the right to name this big crater Uwingu’s Mars Map, with National Space Society as a beneficiary.

The big crater on the auction block is about the same size as the state of Florida, and is located in the southern hemisphere on Mars. It’s available for bidding for the next 10 days, and the bidding gets started Friday evening. So, if you think you’d like to give a big crater name to somebody as a gift, here’s your chance. Sashay on over to eBay and check out the auction.

There are more than 14,000 craters named on the Uwingu Mars map, all coming from folks who have gone over to the site and made a small donation. If you’re interested in a smaller crater, there are still plenty of them left on the Uwingu map!

The National Space Society is a long-time grassroots educational nonprofit founded in the 1970s, and is dedicated to creation of humans as a spacefaring civilization. Their leaders are influential in the national and international conversation about space travel and exploration. A number of luminaries are on their boards and their staff works directly with the public and chapters around the world to further the cause of space exploration. I’ve run across members at many space-related functions, and always am impressed with the vitality of the membership.

I’ve written about the Mars crater naming project before, but let me give a little background on it. Uwingu set it up as a chance for people to put place names on Mars craters on the maps that future Mars missions will be using as they land people on the Red Planet. It seems like an obvious project — to have place names set up in advance to facilitate communication between Earth and Mars, not to mention planning. Many craters have gone long unnamed, and the Uwingu people felt that it was time to change that, and to involve the public. The rationale behind that one is that people who have a personal investment in Mars or a future mission are much more likely to support and encourage such exploration. I can’t argue with that, and I actually jumped in and named some craters myself a while back. The money goes to a good cause, as Uwingu funds are always promised to do. Science education and research are always on the top of Uwingu’s menu of programs to help, and assisting scientists and educators is something we need a LOT more of in the world.

So, if you’re interested in checking out the auction, head over to the link ab0ve. It’s novel, it’s interesting, and the proceeds go to help a great society!