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Rocketman!
I'm in for $99. I like the notion of helping to inspire young people to be interested in space ... and in science in general.
They passed the three-quarter mark on their way to their funding goal, today, with 26 days to go. I think I was number 8,100.
Robert Pearlman
An update from Planetary Resources:
As we approach our campaign goal at the one million mark, we are gearing up to announce one of the most audacious stretch goals on Kickstarter.
If we reach our primary goal by Monday, we’ll announce enhancements that will open the ARKYD to new frontiers of astronomy and put your selfies on the fast track.
We are encouraging each of YOU to recruit ONE person to support ARKYD at the $25 dollar level by Monday.
To help get us there, we’ve created two new pledge levels that many of YOU have been asking for: The Space Selfie Five-Pack for Friends and Family (Basic and HD).
Robert Pearlman
Planetary Resources has announced their "stretch goal" should the campaign surpass its original $1 million goal and reach $2 million: enable ARKYD to identify extrasolar planets.
Alien planets are out there and Planetary Resources needs your help to find them! That's 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 "exoplanets" – 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.
Planetary Resources recently launched a campaign on Kickstarter for the ARKYD – the world's first crowdfunded space telescope accessible to the public. 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!
These upgrades would add exoplanet transit detection capability by enhancing the telescope's stability systems and dedicating time to monitor candidate star systems. A special bonus is that this upgrade would also allow for better measurement of the spin-properties of asteroids, using the same technique. "While the ARKYD won't rival NASA's 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," said Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer, Planetary Resources, Inc.
The company is partnered with one of the world's 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, "We're excited about this game-changing approach that could transform how we do science in the future. 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's turbulent atmosphere."
Rocketman!
I wrote up a little feature about Planetary Resources and my plans for my "selfie", on my art portfolio web site.
One day about two or three years from now 'Spaceship Earth' will make another appearance in orbit around this planet. I hope they like seeing a unique way of using the ARKYD - as an orbiting art gallery.
Robert Pearlman
Planetary Resources' Kickstarter campaign is very close to meeting its $1 million goal more than a week early.
New add-ons have been announced, including an Arkyd mission patch and a half-scale model of the space telescope.
Robert Pearlman
Planetary Resources' ARKYD public space telescope has reached — and surpassed — its $1 million crowd-funding goal! Onwards to $1.5 million and $2 million stretch goals with 11 days to go in the Kickstarter campaign...
New $1.5M Mystery Stretch Goal Revealed! When we reach $1.5 Million in pledges, every selfie pledge or higher will receive an exclusive digital Beta-Selfie, taken next year during the crucial integration phase of spacecraft build! Become a part of the build and catch a glimpse of our clean-room squad in action!
Well here we are, in the final hours of our crowdfunding campaign. We have a lot in store for you during our live finale event, beginning at 3:00 p.m. PDT today through the close of our Kickstarter campaign at 7:00 p.m. PDT. But before all of that fun starts, we wanted to share with you some exciting news.
We are pleased to announce that Sir Richard Branson has joined Planetary Resources' core group of investors.
"I'm excited to be part of the Planetary Resources’ team working on extracting precious minerals from near Earth asteroids. The only way to truly explore our Solar System is to develop the technology and means to sustain our presence in space without depleting resources of Earth." — Richard Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group.
AND... he is so excited that the ARKYD will provide unprecedented public access to space, he has generously made his own campaign pledge of $100,000 to support interactive programming to strengthen STEM education, and to move us closer to our remaining three stretch goals.
spaced out
Due to the lack of necessary follow-on support, we are saddened to announce that we are unable to fulfill the "ARKYD: A Space Telescope for Everyone" campaign.
Very sad to see that the project has been ended.
Full refunds are much appreciated but I would have loved to get those space telescope shots and 'space selfies'.
Robert Pearlman
On the upside, the Arkyd 100 is going forward as Ceres, an advanced Earth observation constellation, thanks to Planetary Resources securing $21.1 million in Series A funding.
Greggy_D
I had very high hopes for this project but it never seemed to move forward with any momentum.
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