Category Archives: Space participation

General, Space participation, SpaceCasts

Spacevidcast 6.15: Crowdfunding your next space program

June 2, 2013 TopSpacer

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

Spacevidcast is a live weekly show all about space and the comsos. Covering major events from NASA, ESA, JAXA, Roscosmos, SpaceX and more, Spacevidcast is your weekly news and views show for every space geek! Tune in live each Saturday at 21:00 UTC / 2:00 pm PDT / 5:00pm EDT and be a part of the community that helps make our live shows amazing. Or simply subscribe to the Spacevidcast channel on YouTube and get your Space Geek on each week!

Astronomy, Education, Space participation

ARKYD space telescope for public access – Kickstarter pledges rocket upwards

May 31, 2013 TopSpacer

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:

Living in Space, Space Arts, Space participation

Kickstarter to launch the comic book “FloatBall” about a space sport

May 30, 2013 TopSpacer

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.”

Astronomy, Space participation

Amateur variable star observers solve dwarf nova mystery

May 25, 2013 TopSpacer

Observations by members of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) have helped to solve a mystery regarding the SS Cygni variable star and correct a measurement made of it with the Hubble telescope: