Mars One teams with Uwingu to use 'people's map of mars'

BOULDER, Colo., March 4 (UPI) -- The nonprofit Mars One space mission announced it is partnering with Colorado space funding company Uwingu to use its "people's map of Mars."

Mars One, based in the Netherlands, and Uwingu announced Monday they have signed a deal for Mars One, which is planning to land four people on Mars in 2025, to use the "people's map of Mars" being developed by Uwingu, Space.com reported Tuesday.

Uwingu said its map will include 500,000 craters named by members of the public for a small fee and it is planning a similar project in the near future to find monikers for Mars' currently unnamed mountains and canyons.

"We're very enthusiastic about the partnership with Uwingu," Mars One chief executive officer and co-founder Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "Like Mars One, Uwingu gives everyone around the world the opportunity to participate in space exploration. The name you choose will go down in history, traveling on board our 2018 mission lander and will be used by our future astronauts. What an amazing opportunity!"

Mars One is planning to launch a robotic lander and orbiter in 2018 to test technologies planned for use in the manned 2025 flight, which is designed to be the beginning of a permanent Mars colony.

"I'm very excited about this," said Uwingu founder and chief executive officer Alan Stern, a former NASA science chief.