Uwingu's offer to name a crater on Mars for a fee of $5 or more is being harshly criticized by the International Astrononmical Union (IAU), the body in charge of outer space naming rights, for going "against the spirit of free and equal access to space, as well as against internationally recognized regulations," Wired reported.

This isn't the first time the IAU and Uwingu, a company that combines its goals of charting outer space and raising money for space exploration by selling naming rights, have fought over the latter's business model. When Uwingu sold the naming rights of exoplanets last year, the IAU accused them of misleading customers into believing they would be purchasing officially recognized titles. Uwingu and their CEO, former NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, contended that their offer clearly stated the names would function in more of a "people's choice" capacity (such as the "milky way galaxy," which isn't IAU-approved) than actual names appearing on maps and in textbooks.

Of Mars' 500,000 craters, Uwingu has already sold 7,000 (in just 10 days) of them to space geeks looking to claim a part of the universe. The company planned to map them anyway, so selling them for a nominal fee and raising money for a grant fund only made sense given their success with similar ventures. All of the $10 million they hope to raise will go to a fund dedicated to budding astronauts who may not fit the typical NASA mold.

"We're developing this grant fund - the Uwingu fund - for people who've been hit by sequestration," Stern told Space.com at the time. "There's nothing like it right now. They have no place to go; it's either NASA, NSF [the National Science Foundation] or you're out of luck."

Obviously, Stern isn't happy with IAU's latest comments.

"I think the IAU is way out of bounds on their concern. They seem to be very concerned by something that's very harmless," he said.

Uwingu co-founder Doug Griffin was similarly frustrated.

"The IAU needs to stop being the self-licking ice cream cone of the scientific community, and recognize that as long as its existence is merely to gratify its own puritanical principles and sense of elitism, it is not going to be a part of the next wave of space exploration," he said.

As Wired's Adam Mann pointed out, the IAU, comprised of thousands of thousands of astronomers, doesn't approve of "the next wave of space exploration," for its naming system is much more carefully crafted than simply awarding them to the highest bidder. Features to which they've given titles usually follow a theme -- such as Shakespeare characters, mountains from the "Lord of the Rings," etc. Opening up the process to the public undermines their poetic system.

To their credit, Uwingu does not sell space features already named by the IAU -- titles which they recognize in their databases. For the two groups, it truly is a race for space.