{"id":2738,"date":"2013-06-11T21:06:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T21:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2738"},"modified":"2013-06-11T21:06:26","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T21:06:26","slug":"exoplanet-search-stretch-goal-for-planetary-resources-arkyd-telescope-kickstarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2738","title":{"rendered":"Exoplanet search stretch goal for Planetary Resources Arkyd telescope Kickstarter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Planetary Resources<\/a> crowd-funding campaign for the ARKYD Space Telescope<\/a> has reached 9,558 Backers, $858,127 pledged of $1,000,000 goal with 19 days to go. To boost pledges far beyond that goal they have posted an ambitious Stretch Goal<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Planetary Resources Needs YOUR Help to Hunt for Alien Planets<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asteroid mining company announces new crowdfunding goal to enhance<\/em>
\nthe ARKYD telescope with capability to search for alien planets around distant stars<\/em><\/p>\n

Bellevue, Washington \u2013 June 11, 2013 \u2013 Alien planets are out there and Planetary Resources<\/a> needs your help to find them! That\u2019s right, the same high-powered telescope technology being used by Planetary Resources to identify near-Earth asteroids can also be used to hunt for what scientists call extrasolar planets or \u201cexoplanets\u201d \u2013 which are very much alien worlds. For the first-time ever, this capability will be placed directly into the hands of students, researchers and citizen scientists.<\/p>\n

Planetary Resources recently launched a campaign on Kickstarter for the ARKYD \u2013 the world\u2019s first crowdfunded space telescope accessible to the public<\/a>. In only 13 days, the company has already reached well over 85 percent of its original US$1 million goal. Today, the company is announcing that if the total amount pledged exceeds US$2 million in the 19 days remaining in the campaign, it will invest the additional funds to enhance the ARKYD space telescope technology to enable it to search for alien planets!<\/p>\n

Visit Planetary Resources\u2019 Kickstarter Page to Pledge Your Support: http:\/\/bit.ly\/ARKYD-100<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

These upgrades would add exoplanet transit detection capability by enhancing the telescope\u2019s stability systems and dedicating time to monitor candidate star systems.\u00a0 A special bonus is that this upgrade would also allow for better measurement of the spin-properties of asteroids, using the same technique.\u00a0 \u201cWhile the ARKYD won\u2019t rival NASA\u2019s US$600 million Kepler spacecraft, which may have to end its mission due to a recent equipment failure, the enhanced ARKYD will be a huge step toward important new scientific discoveries enabled by citizen scientists,\u201d said Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer, Planetary Resources, Inc.<\/p>\n

The company is partnered with one of the world\u2019s leading exoplanet scientists, Sara Seager, Ph.D. of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Seager, Professor of Physics and Planetary Science at MIT stated, \u201cWe’re excited about this game-changing approach that could transform how we do science in the future.\u00a0 It’s not just about advanced technology in a small satellite, but a crowdfunded approach to space science that could be revolutionary. The enhanced version of the ARKYD telescope will be an important source of data for exoplanets that can only be obtained from space, above the blurring effects of Earth\u2019s turbulent atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter H. Diamandis, M.D., Planetary Resources Co-Founder and Co-Chairman said, \u201cWe\u2019re confident this campaign will exceed the original goal of US$1 million dollars. We\u2019re now focusing on enhancing the capabilities of the telescope and creating meaningful and epic crowd involvement.\u201d He continued, \u201cWe\u2019re a hardware and inspiration company, and we\u2019re thrilled to provide a new generation of space pioneers with the ability to take a hands-on approach to exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, more than 9,400 people from around the globe have pledged their support for the ARKYD.\u00a0 Over 8,000 have requested their very own #SpaceSelfie<\/a>, another 900 people have donated time on the ARKYD to education and many others are looking to gain access to the telescope to explore the cosmos on their own!<\/p>\n

Planetary Resources, Inc. was founded in 2009 by Eric Anderson and Dr. Peter H. Diamandis. Our vision is to establish a new paradigm for resource utilization that will bring the Solar System within humanity\u2019s economic sphere of influence. The company will conduct low-cost robotic space exploration beginning with the Arkyd Series of space missions that will identify the most commercially viable near-Earth asteroids. These initial missions will assist the company in enabling the retrieval of raw materials from these select asteroids, including water, precious metals and more.<\/p>\n

Planetary Resources is financed by industry-launching visionaries, three of whom include Google\u2019s CEO Larry Page & Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt; and Ross Perot, Jr., Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group; who are committed to expanding the world\u2019s resource base so humanity can continue to grow and prosper for centuries to come. Some of the company\u2019s partners and advisors include the Bechtel Corporation; film maker and explorer James Cameron; former Chief of Staff, United States Air Force General T. Michael Moseley (Ret.); and Sara Seager, Ph.D., Professor of Planetary Science and Physics at MIT. Members of the company\u2019s technical staff have worked on every recent U.S. Mars lander including Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity, and include other key non-aerospace and safety-critical disciplines. For more information, please visit www.planetaryresources.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Follow us on Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Google+<\/a> and YouTube<\/a> for all the latest updates!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Planetary Resources crowd-funding campaign for the ARKYD Space Telescope has reached 9,558 Backers, $858,127 pledged of $1,000,000 goal with 19 days to go. To boost pledges far beyond that goal they have posted an ambitious Stretch Goal: Planetary Resources Needs YOUR Help to Hunt for Alien Planets Asteroid mining company announces new crowdfunding goal … Continue reading Exoplanet search stretch goal for Planetary Resources Arkyd telescope Kickstarter<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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":[12,22,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-education","category-space-participation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-Ia","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2911,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2911","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":0},"title":"ARKYD space telescope Kickstarter passes $1M goal","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Planetary Resources Kickstarter campaign for the ARKYD public access space telescope surpassed the $1,000,000 goal today. At the moment, they have 11,356 backers, with $1,003,126 pledged and 11 days to go. Just yesterday (see post\u00a0 here) they had $916,582 after about 20 days of fundraising. It was starting to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/YLbkFbE-8Z4\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2874,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2874","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":1},"title":"Update on the Arkyd space telescope Kickstarter campaign","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Planetary Resources fund-raising for the ARKYD public access space telescope has reached 10,350 Backers and $916,582 pledged towards the $1,000,000 goal with 12 days to go. That's a tremendous accomplishment for a space Kickstarter campaign but it actually seems a bit disappointing considering how fast the pledges were coming\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"ExoplanetStretchGoal","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/ExoplanetStretchGoal.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2672,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2672","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":2},"title":"More about the Arkyd space telescope","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0 ARKYD Space Telescope kickstarter campaign has reached nearly 9000 backers and over $810,000 pledged towards their $1,000,000 goal. Planetary Resources has been posting updates and new videos: ARKYD: A Space Telescope for Everyone by Planetary Resources - Updates \u2014 Kickstarter In this video Chris Lewicki leads a conversation with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/d7RrCfMP3OY\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3099,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3099","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":3},"title":"Richard Branson adds $100k to Arkyd public space telescope Kickstarter","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Live webcast from 6:00 - 9:00 pm ET: A message from Planetary Resources: In the final hours, we\u2019re $100K closer to $2M \u2014 Sir Richard Branson supports the ARKYD! Hi there, Well here we are, in the final hours of our crowdfunding campaign.\u00a0 We have a lot in store for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"Finale-Banner-w-Bill-Nye","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.planetaryresources.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Finale-Banner-w-Bill-Nye1-300x75.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3044,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3044","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":4},"title":"Asteroid Zoo citizen science program – stretch goal for Planetary Resources Arkyd Kickstarter","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Planetary Resources and Zooniverse plan a collaboration - Asteroid Zoo - if the Kickstarter campaign for the\u00a0 ARKYD space telescope for the public reaches $1.7M: Planetary Resources Calls on Citizens of Earth to\u00a0Aid in Planetary Defense Company Announces New Crowdfunding Goal to Create \u201cAsteroid Zoo\u201d for Public to Search for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Asteroids & Comets"","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids & Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3106,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3106","url_meta":{"origin":2738,"position":5},"title":"Planetary Resources exceeds $1.5M for Arkyd space telescope Kickstarter","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Planetary Resources Kickstarter\u00a0 campaign to fund the ARKYD public space telescope ended this evening with 17,612 backers pledging $1,505,276 towards the original goal of $1,000,000. Richard Branson is adding another $100k. Congratulations to the PRI team on a very successful crowdfunding effort and a great public participation project that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738","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=2738"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2740,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions\/2740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}