Celebrating 50 Years of Mars Exploration

On November 28^th, we launched the first private radio transmission to Mars, sending an historic almost 90,000 names, messages, and pictures from people on Earth. Now those same messages, running almost 900 printed pages, have been delivered to the NASA Administrator, key space program appropriators in Congress, and the General Secretary of the United Nations, to show support for space exploration.

The binders weighed about 10 lbs each!

“Uwingu is excited and proud to let key leaders know how this historic radio transmission symbolizes public interest in space exploration,” said Uwingu founder and CEO, Dr. Alan Stern.

The “Beam Me to Mars” project was designed to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the 28 November 1964 launch of NASA’s Mariner 4 mission—the first successful mission to explore Mars. Like all Uwingu projects, proceeds from Beam Me to Mars contributed to The Uwingu Fund for space research and education grants.

Uwingu’s Beam Me to Mars project was hosted at http://www.uwingu.com. Included in the messages sent to Mars were logos sent for over 25 major space corporations and organizations that supported the project, as well as messages from celebrities, including:

• Motion picture actors Seth Green and wife Clare Grant
• Star Trek actor George (“Sulu”) Takei and husband Brad Takei
• Bill Nye, The Science Guy
• Former International Space Station commander and media star, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield
• Commercial astronaut Richard Garriott
• Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver
• Pulitzer winning author and playwright Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter, Longitudes)
• Author and screenwriter Homer Hickam (The Rocket Boys, October Sky)

Universal Space Network Beam Me to Mars Transmission on November 28, 2014