A company is giving people the opportunity to send messages to Mars.
Uwingu, a relatively new space funding company, launched a project called "Beam Me to Mars" on Tuesday, August 19. This project enables participants to send names, messages and even images to the red planet.
In August of 2012, Uwingu announced its existence by launching a fundraising campaign using the crowd-funding resource IndieGoGo. In that campaign’s information, the company described, “Uwingu is a small start-up company, a for profit LLC, consisting of prominent astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives, and educators who passionately want to create new ways for space exploration, research, and education to be funded.”
The goal of that fundraising campaign was to raise $75,000 for start-up expenses. The company raised nearly $80,000 by the end of the month-long effort.
The company explained in its IndieGoGo campaign that it has plans to launch several projects “that will earn revenue to generate a new, private sector funding stream of millions or even tens of millions of dollars annually for space projects of all kinds.” The “Beam Me to Mars” initiative is one of those projects.
According to Uwingu, this project celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first mission to Mars—NASA’s Mariner 4, which was launched into space on November 28, 1964. All messages collected by Uwingu will be beamed into space on November 28, 2014 by communications provider Universal Space Network using radio telescopes. The messages will reportedly take 15 minutes to reach Mars.
But sending a message to Mars isn’t free. Uwingu is naturally charging a fee to participate in this project because, after all, the goal of this project is to generate revenue. Interested individuals are invited to participate at one of four available levels:
• Space Tourist: $5 – At this level, your transmission includes a name (your name, a friend’s name, a pet’s name, etc.), plus an optional prewritten message.
• Mission Specialist: $10 – This level includes a name (your name, a friend’s name, a pet’s name, etc.), plus a brief 100-character message.
• Senior Mission Specialist: $20 – This level includes a name (your name, a friend’s name, a pet’s name, etc.), plus a message of up to 1,000 characters.
• Mission Commander: $100 – This level includes a name (your name, a friend’s name, a pet’s name, etc.), a message of up to 1,000 characters, and an image of yourself, your family or anything else.
Uwingu CEO Alan Stern hopes the “Beam Me to Mars” project inspires people. And, of course, he hopes it generates lots of money too. As he explains to Space.com, “We want to make an impression on leaders. The more messages, the bigger impression it makes. If this thing goes viral, and it becomes the thing to do, then it'll make a huge impression." In addition to delivering the submitted messages to Mars, the company plans to hand-deliver all messages to Congress, NASA and the United Nations.
Uwingu notes that 50 percent of each purchase will be used by the company for space research, education and exploration grants. To date, the company has reportedly raised more than $100,000 for grants through its various efforts.
Messages that have already been submitted to the “Beam Me to Mars” project can be read on the company’s website. Those wishing to submit a message or photo to potentially curious Martians may do so at Uwingu.com.
