Astrophotographer Ralf Vandebergh writes about imaging the Russian Bion-M1 satellite during its recent flight: Ground-based Images of Bion-M1 Spacecraft – Space Safety Magazine – June.5.13.
He captured an image of the spacecraft with “surprising resolution [at] a range of 581 kilometers and an altitude of 575 kilometers”.
As of mid-day June 2nd, the Planetary Resources crowdfunding campaign for a publicly accessible space telescope (see earlier post here) has reached over $650k and nearly 6700 backers in just 4 days in pursuit of its $1M goal: ARKYD: A Space Telescope for Everyone by Planetary Resources — Kickstarter.
Hank Green, who participated in the webcasts last week that introduced the campaign, has this video about the project:
The latest Spacevidcast live program video is now online: Crowdfunding your next Space Program – Spacevidcast.
This is from the capiton:
Planetary Resources introduced a $1,000,000 kickstarter project and raised over 1/2 the funds required in 2 days! Does this mean that crowd funded space programs will start cropping up more often?
In Space News we look at recent launches, radiation in space, Rats on Mars and the Space Launch System. We are joined by Douglas Messier of ParablicArc.com for an update on ISDC as well as what is going on in Mojave. For more information on each story check out our wiki here: http://wiki.spacevidcast.com/en/6.15
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Planetary Resources is a company planning to mine asteroids. Initially, though, they will place small observatories into earth orbit to search for candidate near earth orbit asteroids to which they will later send probes for closer inspection. On Wednesday they announced a program to dedicate one of their space observatories to public access and education.
The ARKYD project will launch in 2015 a space telescope into orbit specifically to allow students, schools and the members of the general public to direct its observations. They opened a Kickstarter campaign to raise $1M to fund the project.
One of the cool perks for a $25 pledge is a Space Selfie in which an image that you give them will be displayed on the “satellite’s external screen overlooking Earth. We will then take a picture from our camera arm and send the image back to you.”
The concept and the perks seem very popular as the 32 day campaign has already reached in the first two days nearly $565,000 from 5674 backers. [Update June.1.13: The totals are currently at $625,714 nd 6,234 backers.]
Here is a video for the Kickstarter:
And in the video below,
Jason Silva, the host of National Geographic’s Brain Games talks about what the ARKYD space telescope means to him and the world. You can follow Jason on Twitter @JasonSilva
Help fund citizen science and make space exploration a reality for everyone! Support the ARKYD Kickstarter http://kck.st/18DzUJ7
And here is a video with Planetary Resources co-founder Peter Diamandis and Planetary Society chief Bill Nye:
Former NFL Pro Bowl linebacker Ken Harvey and aerospace engineer Allen Herbert have sought ways to excite young people’s interest in technology and spaceflight and one of the concepts they have developed is a team sport that would be played in microgravity. Called FloatBall, it combines elements of football, basketball and freefall. It was described in this 2008 NY Times article: Marketing Sports as the Next Phase of Space Tourism – NYTimes.com.
Obviously such a game requires sizable facilities in space and low cost transport to support the building and populating of such facilities. Such transport isn’t available yet and may not be for awhile. So they are pursuing a way to keep the idea alive by bringing it first to a comic book world. They have recruited a team of artists and seek to raise $30k on Kickstarter by June 21st to launch the FloatBall comic book series:
Harvey says:
Combining our talents, we came up with a game that would be fun, ferocious and factual. Since society has not yet achieved the level of space proficiency needed to play our new game, we decided that next best step would be to create a comic book about the sport. Not just any comic, but one that is cool and fun like Marvel or DC Comics, and also factually based on scientific possibilities.
FloatBall, like the original Star Trek, will help ignite the reality of today while fueling the imagination of tomorrow. This is where we need your help. We’d like to ask your assistance with funding this project.
Here is a video about the Kickstarter project:
Harvey also says:
If you are a fan of comics, space, sports, or science, then this is the comic for you. We need to raise enough money to produce and distribute the first issue. You can be in on the beginning of something great. Years into the future, your name will be associated with the beginning of a new age of sports in space.
Our goal is to create the first of a series of illustrated comic books delving into the world of FloatBall, the sport of the future. Who knows, with any luck the story will become a movie!
“Preproduction sketches of FloatBall players by the FutureDude team.”