Private Martian Colony project to use people's map of Mars

I thought this would be a good read for ATS. It seems that Mars One has set a date for landing 4 colonists on Mars at 2025 instead of the original 2021-22 time frame. They already have an active campaign with the Uwingu group to name Martian craters:

www.uwingu.com...

"The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which aims to land four astronauts on the Red Planet in a one-way mission in 2025, has signed a deal to use a new "people's map of Mars" being developed by the space-funding company Uwingu, officials with both organizations announced today (March 3). Most of the landforms on Uwingu's map will bear names chosen by the general public, for a small fee. Uwingu announced last week that it's seeking monikers for the 500,000 unnamed craters currently cataloged on Mars, and officials say they hope to solicit appellations for other Red Planet features, such as mountains and canyons, in the future."

I want to get behind this effort but I'm unsure because the date(s) for initial touchdown keeps changing, and that's not a good sign. Still, I want this to happen!

www.space.com...

It's a nice way to make money/raise funds, but I wonder how "official" these geological feature names would be.

Is this similar to the "International Star Registry" that allows a person to -- for a fee -- name a star after someone? If so, it should be pointed out that the "International Star Registry" is just a private company whose purpose is to make money for the people who own the company -- and that's fine, but the names it gives stars are NOT at all official. The actual naming of stars is controlled by the International Astronomical Union.

Soylent Green Is People
It's a nice way to make money/raise funds, but I wonder how "official" these geological feature names would be.

If I give them enough money, can I rename the entire planet after me?
"Blue Shift's Planet." Got a nice ring to it.

After thinking about my post above, even if they are NOT the official names, but Mars One succeeds in landing humans on Mars, I suppose if they (Mars One) uses the place names as given by Uwingu, then that would still be something meaningful. What I mean is that even if the crater they land next to has some official name that comes from mythology, but Mars One still refers to it all the time as a crater named after me, then that would be pretty cool, even if that name is not "official".

Blue Shift

Soylent Green Is People
It's a nice way to make money/raise funds, but I wonder how "official" these geological feature names would be.

If I give them enough money, can I rename the entire planet after me?
"Blue Shift's Planet." Got a nice ring to it.

In keeping with the theme of your "Robby the Robot" avatar, maybe you could name it "Forbidden Planet" -- although that sounds a bit too unnecessarily ominous

Soylent Green Is People
In keeping with the theme of your "Robby the Robot" avatar, maybe you could name it "Forbidden Planet" -- although that sounds a bit too unnecessarily ominous

True. I wouldn't necessarily make it forbidden, however, I would make it fairly expensive.

When you say, "official" name, you do realize, Mars One has just as much right to name anything on Mars they want if they land there first... Maybe NASA or whoever saw these places first through telescope, but since when does this mean you own something you look at... I saw if Mars One goes there first, they get a little installment going on, they are the rightful owners of it...

I can imagine one day something like Elysium, where Earth is boned and you have people trying to come to Mars which is in the future much more of a stable and habitable location, and there being wars trying to stop Earthlings from coming to Mars, the planet of Earths former elite ancestry...

BigOrange
When you say, "official" name, you do realize, Mars One has just as much right to name anything on Mars they want if they land there first... Maybe NASA or whoever saw these places first through telescope, but since when does this mean you own something you look at... I saw if Mars One goes there first, they get a little installment going on, they are the rightful owners of it...

I can imagine one day something like Elysium, where Earth is boned and you have people trying to come to Mars which is in the future much more of a stable and habitable location, and there being wars trying to stop Earthlings from coming to Mars, the planet of Earths former elite ancestry...

Mars One isn't naming destinations on Mars, it's the Uwingu organization which is run by people from NASA. Funny that you mention that movie (Elysium), I can see that happening with a Martian colony; exclusive for the elite(s). We shall see.

BigOrange
When you say, "official" name, you do realize, Mars One has just as much right to name anything on Mars they want if they land there first... Maybe NASA or whoever saw these places first through telescope, but since when does this mean you own something you look at... I saw if Mars One goes there first, they get a little installment going on, they are the rightful owners of it...

I can imagine one day something like Elysium, where Earth is boned and you have people trying to come to Mars which is in the future much more of a stable and habitable location, and there being wars trying to stop Earthlings from coming to Mars, the planet of Earths former elite ancestry...

NASA is NOT in charge of officially naming space and planetary features, either. That is up to the International Astronomical Union (or IAU). The IAU is the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies (stars, planets, asteroids, etc.) and any surface features on them. Sure -- anyone could give a name to a crater, but the people in the field of astronomy would defer to the name given by the IAU. If the IAU has not yet given a feature a name, I suppose an "unofficial/non-IAU name" would suffice until the feature is named by the IAU, but there could be 100s of people who will lay claim to the name of a single feature.

And when I say "Official" I mean a naming convention that is mutually agreed upon by the professionals and accredited amateurs in the field of astronomy and planetary science. Uwingu crater names and other money-making ventures such as the 'International Star Registry" are NOT official, because they are not the naming convention that is mutually agreed upon by the professionals in the field of astronomy and planetary science.

But like I said above, anyone could look at pictures taken from Mars' orbit and name a crater -- so a crater could have 100s (or even 1000s) of names. That's why astronomers defer to the IAU for naming features. They have agreed that the IAU's names and naming conventions are official.

Here is a link to the International Astronomical Union:
www.iau.org...


Here is a link to their conventions (mutually-agreed upon by the members of the IAU, who are astronomers):
Naming Astronomical Objects


And, by the way, here is a page from that link that discusses the other "private" companies out there that name astronomical features, and says how they are in no way affiliated with those companies (such as Uwingu and the International Star Registry):
Buying Star Names


HOWEVER, like I said in my post above, even though the "official" name of a crater as recognized by the IAU and astronomers may be different than the one being used by Mars One, if Mars One uses their unofficial name in their press releases, that still makes that unofficial name very meaningful.

One example of this would be Mt. Sharp on Mars (the mountain in Gale Crater that the rover "Curiosity" will be studying). NASA had been using the unofficial name "Mt. Sharp" for a couple of years (named after a geologist Robert P. Sharp). However, the IAU has since officially named it Aeolis Mons, but some people (including some people at NASA) still unofficially and commonly refer to it as Mt. Sharp.

BigOrange
When you say, "official" name, you do realize, Mars One has just as much right to name anything on Mars they want if they land there first......

In this case that will be a really big IF

wmd_2008

BigOrange
When you say, "official" name, you do realize, Mars One has just as much right to name anything on Mars they want if they land there first......

In this case that will be a really big IF

Yeah, but even if they do, the features around their landing site would already have been seen and photographed by the orbiters (such as the MRO that is there now) that had already photographed Mars with resolutions that would be able to see even small craters.

Any name Mars One uses for a feature (even features not yet officially given a name by the International Astronomical Union, or IAU) would simply be the name as given by Mars One. However, as I mentioned before, that name may still be meaningful (even if not the "official" name) if it becomes used enough in popular vernacular.

I already mentioned "Mt. Sharp" above, which is the unofficial name NASA originally used to identify the mountain in Gale Crater that is being studied by the rover "Curiosity". Even though the IAU has since officially renamed it "Aeolis Mons", NASA unofficial name for it (Mt. Sharp) has stuck in the media, NASA, and among lay people. It may take a while for that mountain to be called by its new official name.

Another example is the dwarf planet Eris (which was set to become our 10th planet, until it and Pluto became among the first of the new "dwarf planets"). When Mike Brown discovered Eris, he originally (and unofficially) named "Xena", as in the warrior princess from TV...and yes, he named it directly after the TV character. However, the IAU gave it the name "Eris", and at the same time they also officially demoted Pluto as a direct result of the discovery of Eris/Xena.