Category Archives: Uwingu Fund

Uwingu, Uwingu Fund

Crowd-Sourcing Exploration and Research, Part III

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Uwingu is Taking Wing

I’ve written a couple of times about Uwingu, the crowd-sourcing exploration and research site launched by Alan Stern and a group of like-minded scientists and educators who want to see research MOVE in this country, not just stand still.  I happen to like their goals and their mission, and so I’m lending my support to their fundraising efforts.  Their initial campaign ends on Friday the 14th and they’re still a bit short of their goal.

If you haven’t read about these guys, you should (at the link above).  They’re doing something about exploring new avenues of funding worthwhile research and exploration while others stand by and wring their hands (or actively obstruct progress).  I admire the spirit of Uwingu and I hope you will, too.

I know many of the people involved and they are dedicated, smart, and passionate about what they’re doing. Those are also just the kinds of qualities that good research needs in the people who do it.  So, if you DO decide to contribute to their fund, you’ll be helping choose and fund some of the best and brightest out there.

Uwingu has already chosen a first group to fund — the SETI Institute in California. The scientists there are doing ground-breaking work in radio science, from astrobiology to the search for signals from other civilizations. It’s solid science and it speaks a lot to its importance that Uwingu chose that group to fund. And, there are many other useful and wonderful projects they can turn their attention to.

So, I’ll put it on the line here: Uwingu needs the money. They’ve raised at least 45K of the 75K they need. And, believe it or not, many of the folks who have put THEIR money on the line for this are regular, ordinary folks who want to see science move forward. They’re joined by large and small companies who share the same view.

Want to know more?  Check out the video below and then go to the Uwingu site to make a contribution and claim a perk. Science moves us forward, but we have to be willing to help it, too.

 

Science, space exploration, Uwingu Fund

Helping Exploration to Uwingu

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Crowd-Funding Exploration

I was talking to my friend Alan Stern the other day. We both worked at the same lab at the University of Colorado and had the same advisor when we were in grad school.  If you don’t know about Alan, Google him sometime. He’s packed a lot of experience into his life, and is probably one of the most energetic and forward-thinking people I know.  Even talking quietly over his mobile phone so he wouldn’t wake up the rest of his family, Alan radiated energy.

So, what’s got Alan excited these days?  One word: Uwingu.  It’s the Swahili word for “the sky”, and the name of a new project called the Uwingu Fund  that he and a group of friends started. What the team wants to do is crowd-source space exploration and science research that is deserving of funding, but isn’t getting it in these days of austere budgets. “We want this to be a “gate fund” for space,” he said.  “There’s nothing else like it. We’re selling something of broad interest around the world and the dollars will go toward space exploration.  We’re hoping to do something transformational.”

Uwingu Fund lets people donate money in exchange for “perks”.  The funds they share will be used in as a “private sector” funding mechanism that could bring millions or tens of millions of dollars annually for space projects of all kinds.  For example, it will provide grants to people who propose meritorious projects in space exploration, space research, or space education. As Alan puts it some of the money will be used to fund people as projects. “It’s a very different way to fund research from the past. It’s a very 21st-century model,” he said. “It will be peer-reviewed, just as other science grant proposals are. We’ll have review panels to help select the deserving projects.”

The idea was seeded by Alan’s experiences at NASA, his involvement with the New Horizons mission (which will reach Pluto in three years), and, more recently, by a series of “bake-sale” and “car wash” and “shoe shining” type fundraisers he spurred.  “People would come up to me at those events and ask me, ‘what can I do to help?’,” Alan mused.

He pointed out what many of us have known for years but somehow gets missed by the media and the political elites: that many, many people across all walks of life ARE interested in space exploration and science, and they want to be a part of it.  Maybe they don’t all get to be astronauts, but they get to know that something they contributed to is making science good. For example, many folks have their names embedded on a microchip that went to Mars onboard on the Curiosity rover.  I sent MY name in, and it gives me a little frisson of wonder each time I think about it.  And, as I pointed out in another entry here, it only cost me $7.00 in taxes for that whole mission. Not a bad return on investment, and a heck of a lot healthier (mentally and physically) than a deep-fried meal at a fast-food joint.

I like Alan’s idea and I’ll be getting involved. As I mentioned above, Uwingu Fund is offering perks, just as other crowd-sourcing sites do. And, I’ll happily take a perk. But, for me, the biggest perk will be seeing some worthwhile science get funded that would have otherwise been ignored in the science-unfriendly political environment we face today. We need science to move forward, both as individuals and as a species.  And Uwingu Fund is a way to help that happen. It’s is new, it’s just getting started, but I do think that the group behind it will achieve great things and help others to do the same. So, check it out and get in on moving us forward.