Brent Spiner & Robert Picardo use Kickstarter for orbital telescope

[Candlelight]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1458134548/arkyd-a-space-telescope-for-everyone-0

Planetary Resources has teamed up with Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson, actors Seth Greeen, Brent Spiner and Rob Picardo, Bill Nye the Science Guy, futurist Jason Silva, and MIT astrophysicist Dr. Sara Seager to support the development of the ARKYD telescope. This will be a great educational tool for K-12 students and the public to explore space with sophisticated technology.

The ARKYD is a technologically advanced, orbiting space telescope that will be controlled by YOU, the crowd, through your pledges and community involvement! You can even direct your telescope time to non-profit science centers and universities for use in your communities!
Just think about the true impact of this endeavor for a moment. Together we can provide access to technology that costs tens of millions of dollars into the hands of students, scientists and a new generation of explorers, who will use it in ways we can’t even fathom yet!
At Planetary Resources, our primary focus is mining asteroids, and we’re pushing the boundaries of what is possible by vertically integrating and applying innovations from consumer-based industries. It’s our goal to reduce the cost of space observatories many times over, allowing anyone to access them for their own use. We want to empower the crowd to solve the big problems of our time — and this is the first step to making that a reality.

I can't wait to see the global arguments pop up as to whose turn it is...

 

[CaptainStoner]

Re: Brent Spiner & Robert Picardo use Kickstarter for orbital telescop

Interesting.
Nice that they'll let some kids play with the telescope, but why not do this kind of thing with NASA rather than these rock-miners? Wonder what they paid the actors and such. Too bad priorities are so fuckward. We should have many such telescopes available to the schools, through public funding. Ah well. Cool if it launches. I have other priorities.

 

[RandyS]

Re: Brent Spiner & Robert Picardo use Kickstarter for orbital telescop

Interesting.
Nice that they'll let some kids play with the telescope, but why not do this kind of thing with NASA rather than these rock-miners? Wonder what they paid the actors and such.

Not to be a downer, but I'd guess that this part is pretty much a given.

 

[sojourner]

Re: Brent Spiner & Robert Picardo use Kickstarter for orbital telescop

but why not do this kind of thing with NASA rather than these rock-miners?

Because the rock miners are the ones doing it? It's not like someone came to them with the idea. Regardless, if this were done by NASA it would cost us much more in tax dollars, take tens of years to get launched and probably get cancelled by some congressional idiot. Leave the government out of things when possible.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Brent Spiner & Robert Picardo use Kickstarter for orbital telescop

Yeah, this will be a lot cheaper through a private organization. I'll have to look at the presentation to see what it can actually do, but I'll probably back it.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Re: Brent Spiner & Robert Picardo use Kickstarter for orbital telescop

Likely the only way something like this would ever get funded. My Dad has worked indirectly with Bill Nye in the past, when my Dad donated several of his kits to a school, where they assembled them and learned about telescopes and astronomy under the eye of Bill Nye. So, he's done this kind of thing before, and if he supports this project, it lends some weight to it in my mind.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Brent Spiner & Robert Picardo use Kickstarter for orbital telescop

Looks pretty good. I backed it.

The status counters update in real time; the project gained about a thousand dollars as I watched the presentation video.