For those of us that have dreamed of wielding cosmic power (basically everyone, right?) and doing good for the planet (again, mostly everyone?): our time has arrived. Asteroid mining startup Planetary Resources is in the final stretch of a massive Kickstarter campaign to fund one of their ARKYD 100 space telescopes for public use.
The good part: the project has already surpassed the $1 million goal and continues to move toward fantastic stretch goals. This means the telescope is going to space!
The bad part: you only have until Sunday to back the project and get your own time on the telescope!
Yes, you read that correctly. Starting at the $200 level, you can get access to the telescope and point it at anything (except the sun) and get a photo. This might be the coolest present you can give someone (“Hey, I got you time on a space telescope for your birthday. That’s how I say ‘I love you’ in Geek.”). For the truly ambitious, you can put your name on a telescope or be like The Oatmeal and get to name an asteroid!
For the slightly less ambitious, Planetary Resources offers a fun, unique perk they call a “space selfie.” They are promising to project a photo of your choice onto their satellite and take a picture of it with an external camera. [YES, I am doing this! NO, I haven’t figured out what picture yet.]
As a bonus “perk” for passing the $1 million mark, the crew at Planetary Resources is offering a free PDF so that you can make your own papercraft ARKYD 100. Rainn Wilson built two of them in 10-seconds on a recent Google+ Hangout with Peter Diamandis. Can you beat that?? Download the file and let your kids practice while you go buy some telescope time.
An opportunity for everyone who wants to experience viewing the universe and space using a telescope with the help of that project. Very great!