{"id":14897,"date":"2017-09-12T15:33:39","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T19:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14897"},"modified":"2017-09-12T15:33:39","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T19:33:39","slug":"project-blue-crowd-funding-a-telescope-to-find-habitable-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14897","title":{"rendered":"Project Blue: Crowd-funding a telescope to find habitable worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/boldlygo.org\/\" target=\"_d\">BoldlyGo Institute<\/a>\u00a0and several other institutions are supporting\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.projectblue.org\/\" target=\"_d\">Project Blue<\/a>, a private initiative to develop a space telescope specialized to look for habitable planets around other stars. The Project has opened a crowd-funding campaign to pay for the design of the spacecraft:\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiegogo.com\/projects\/project-blue-a-telescope-to-find-habitable-worlds-science-technology#\/\">Project Blue: A Telescope to Find Habitable Worlds | Indiegogo<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Project Blue Search for Habitable Worlds IGG01\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/232575395?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Our generation has a unique opportunity to discover Earthlike planets around other stars, and Project Blue could make this breakthrough. We&#8217;re creating detailed plans for the spacecraft, and we want you to be a part of advancing our mission to the Launchpad!<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>We believe a sister Earth could exist not too far from the place we call home and, thanks to recent breakthroughs, the technology now exists to find out. We at Project Blue aim to search the Alpha Centauri system for planets like Earth, and we want your help to launch our engineering design effort, like creating blueprints for a house before construction begins. We are looking to raise $175,000 to complete this engineering phase and to establish our industry partnerships. And we want to get you involved in the mission right at the start so that, together, we can all take a bold leap into shaping humanity\u2019s future!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The observatory would be much smaller, and much cheaper, than the Hubble or similar big science spacecraft:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Project Blue is a space telescope mission that seeks to find and photograph a habitable world, another Earthlike planet where life can potentially thrive. Our goal is simple\u00a0\u2014 to build &amp; launch a telescope so powerful it can detect a blue planet in the nearby Alpha Centauri star system. Thanks to recent technological innovations, our telescope is small enough to fit on a coffee table, but powerful enough to pick up a planet over a billion times dimmer than its star \u2014 from four light years away! With this telescope we aim to take the first ever optical image of a potentially habitable exoplanet, and the team hopes that the results will show a \u2018pale blue dot\u2019 similar to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov\/catalog\/PIA00452\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">famous photo of Earth<\/a>\u00a0taken by the Voyager probe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With sufficient public support, the spacecraft could go into orbit by 2023:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0BoldlyGo Institute\u00a0and several other institutions are supporting\u00a0Project Blue, a private initiative to develop a space telescope specialized to look for habitable planets around other stars. The Project has opened a crowd-funding campaign to pay for the design of the spacecraft:\u00a0Project Blue: A Telescope to Find Habitable Worlds | Indiegogo\u00a0 Our generation has a unique opportunity &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14897\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Project Blue: Crowd-funding a telescope to find habitable worlds<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,41,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-seti","category-space-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3Sh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13329,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13329","url_meta":{"origin":14897,"position":0},"title":"Project Blue: Crowd-funded space telescope aims to image exoplanet","author":"TopSpacer","date":"October 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Project Blue\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0BoldlyGo Institute\u00a0 is a new science initiative to capture the first photograph of a potential Earth-like planet orbiting another Sun-like star. The mission aims to launch a lightweight space telescope to directly image exoplanets around Earth\u2019s nearest star system, Alpha Centauri A and B. With a budget the fraction\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/ClxA85v5QI8\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13519,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13519","url_meta":{"origin":14897,"position":1},"title":"Kickstarter: Project Blue aims to see exoplanets at Alpha Centauri with low cost space observatory","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Project Blue\u00a0intends to develop a small, low cost space telescope that looks continually at our nearest neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri, and try to directly image any\u00a0planets orbiting it. A coronagraph will be used to block the otherwise blinding glare of the stars. The project\u00a0has opened a\u00a0Kickstarter campaign\u00a0to raise $1M\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"Project Blue Infographic","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/2bed2dba3d1ab9b8638c4c30cd59c6d9_original1-394x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7397,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=7397","url_meta":{"origin":14897,"position":2},"title":"Kepler space telescope finds first earth-size planet in habitable zone","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"An announcement from the NASA Kepler mission: NASA's Kepler Telescope Discovers First Earth-Size Planet in 'Habitable Zone' Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the \"habitable zone\" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"PIA18000_ip","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/PIA18000_ip-1024x575.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4393,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=4393","url_meta":{"origin":14897,"position":3},"title":"Video: Imaging habitable exoplanets + PANOPTES citizen science exoplanet search","author":"TopSpacer","date":"September 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a very interesting SETI Institute seminar by Olivier Guyon about the possibilities of directly imaging planets in the habitable zones of stars by using coronagraph techniques on telescopes to suppress the glare of the star. Could work with a Hubble size telescope in orbit or with the new giant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/Da2KLcbUIV8\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12906,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12906","url_meta":{"origin":14897,"position":4},"title":"Kepler space observatory finds more than 100 new exoplanets","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0Kepler space telescope\u00a0continues to find more planets around other stars: NASA\u2019s Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission An international team of astronomers has discovered and confirmed a treasure trove of new worlds using NASA\u2019s Kepler spacecraft on its K2 mission. Among the findings tallying 197 initial planet candidates,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"k2_100planet_header[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/k2_100planet_header1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12567,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12567","url_meta":{"origin":14897,"position":5},"title":"ESO: Three possibly habitable worlds observed in nearby dwarf star system","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest report from ESO\u00a0(European Southern Observatory): Three Potentially Habitable Worlds Found Around Nearby Ultracool Dwarf Star Currently the best place to search for life beyond the Solar System Astronomers using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO\u2019s La Silla Observatory have discovered three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"eso1615a[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/eso1615a1-300x123.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14901,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14897\/revisions\/14901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}