What do I get when I name and purchase a Mars crater? When you name and purchase a Mars Crater, you will be able to download a .png image file of the certificate immediately either from the confirmation email or through your order history when you are logged into your account. You can then print it out yourself or send it out for printing. You can print it as many times as you would like. Your crater name, submitted by information and citation will also be added to the Mars Crater Map and visible to anyone viewing the map.

How do I find my crater on the map? The coordinates of your crater will be on your certificate so you can find it easily with the search feature below the global map. You can also find it by searching the name or submitted by information.

What if I don’t have a color printer available to print my Mars crater certificate? You can print it using any image file software like MS Paint which is usually automatically part of the software you get on a desktop. If you don’t have MS Paint, you can download it for free here. If you are using a Mac, iPhoto is a comparable software. If you don’t see it on your Mac, you can download it for free here. If printing from home is not an option or you would prefer a higher quality printout, we suggest sending the image file to one of the many online vendors who will do the printing for you. Popular options include: Shutterfly, Walgreens, Snapfish, Walmart, and CVS. Of course, there are many others if you search for “online photo printing” or find a local vendor who may provide this service as well.

Can you mail a certificate to me or the person I am gifting it to? No. We currently do not have the capacity to mail certificates. Please see above for printing and mailing options by online vendors.

Hasn’t the IAU already named thousands of craters on Mars? Yes, over a period of about 50 years, the IAU named about 15,000 features on Mars. All of the names of those features have been grandfathered onto Uwingu’s base map. We hope to greatly accelerate the naming of features on Mars by involving the public!

How will our Uwingu Mars feature names be used? They’ll be used by anyone using Uwingu’s Mars maps. For now that’s just the public, but soon, we hope, scientists and space missions to Mars will be using these maps too! In fact, the private Mars mission Mars One has already begun using our Mars map.

How does Uwingu’s name approval process work? There is no approval process at Uwingu! Once you’ve completed the check out process, your name is accepted. And unless it’s later found to be profane, pejorative, or otherwise offensive (in which case it’ll be removed), it’ll remain approved.

Can I visit my crater? Yes! You can visit your crater through our web site at www.uwingu.com. Soon we hope to see Uwingu craters popping up on Wikipedia, other Mars maps, and in social media!

What if the name I want to use is already taken? No problem, Uwingu’s Mars maps feature a unique Province and District grid system on the face of Mars. Just like there are Main Streets and other locales repeated across the Earth so long as they are unique within their country, state, and city, names can be repeated on Mars just so long as its unique within the given province and district. So if you find the name you want to use is taken, just move to a different map location in a different province or district! And in fact, if you want to put a given name many places on Mars—you can!

Can there be duplicate names on Mars? Yes Uwingu’s Mars maps feature a unique Province and District grid system on the face of Mars. Just like there are Main Streets and other locales repeated across the Earth so long as they are unique within their country, state, and city, names can be repeated on Mars just so long as its unique within the given province and district. So if you find the name you want to use is taken, just move to a different map location in a different province or district! And in fact, if you want to put a given name many places on Mars—you can!

Can I name mountains, hills, or canyons on Mars? Not yet! We plan to offer that soon, but for now, only craters are available for naming in the Uwingu map database.

Can someone rename my crater after I’ve named it? No, they cannot. This is not allowed at Uwingu.

Can I name a crater anything? Yes, as long as the name is not profane or pejorative. Did you know, you can help us police the website, looking out for profane or pejorative crater names that may have slipped in? If you find an inappropriate name, send an email about it to helpdesk@uwingu.com; if we agree the name should be removed, we’ll send you a coupon with Uwingu credit of equal value to the offensive crater you found!

Am I purchasing property or property rights on Mars? What about naming rights on Mars itself? No, you are simply purchasing a place on Uwingu’s new map of Mars, a map which, we note, the Mars One mission is using already and actually taking to Mars in 2018!

How is Uwingu different from companies that offer to name a star? Many companies that offer to sell you a star make don’t publish their name databases– so if you or an astronomer wants to find a star’s name, well, good luck! At Uwingu, our databases are fully open to all. And at Uwingu, naming helps support scientific research and education through grants given by The Uwingu Fund.