{"id":2560,"date":"2013-05-31T21:59:45","date_gmt":"2013-05-31T21:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2560"},"modified":"2013-06-01T20:14:29","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T20:14:29","slug":"arkyd-space-telescope-for-public-access-kickstarter-pledges-rocket-upwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2560","title":{"rendered":"ARKYD space telescope for public access – Kickstarter pledges rocket upwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Planetary Resources<\/a> is a company planning to mine asteroids. Initially, though, they will place small observatories<\/a> 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<\/a> to dedicate one of their space observatories to public access and education.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> to raise $1M to fund the project.<\/p>\n

One of the cool perks for a $25 pledge is a\u00a0Space Selfie<\/em> in which an image that you give them will be displayed on the “satellite\u2019s external screen overlooking Earth. We will then take a picture from our camera arm and send the image back to you.”<\/p>\n

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<\/strong>.<\/del> [Update June.1.13<\/strong>: The totals are currently at\u00a0 $625,714 nd 6,234 backers.<\/strong>]<\/p>\n

Here is a video for the Kickstarter:<\/p>\n