Planetary Resources launched a kickstarter a couple days ago to launch the first publicly accessible telescope.
They will be launching a few other telescopes, mostly for searching for asteroids to mine, but this telescope will be the only publicly funded one, and the only publicly accessible one.
The rewards range from having a picture of yourself displayed in space, and photographed with earth as a backdrop, to being able to point the telescope anywhere you want and take a picture.. to tickets to the launch event, a chance to sign the spacecraft and having your name or message etched into the spacecraft.
I contributed at the level that allows me to have a picture taken in space. Well.. a picture taken of a picture of me displayed on the telescope.. in space. But, it’s something I can afford and it is probably the closest I’ll ever come to being in space.
I will also be able to point the telescope at any celestial object (other than the sun) and have a picture of it sent to me! Each of these observations represent up to 30 minutes of exposure time on the space telescope’s main optic.
So, I need some suggestions of what I should take a picture of. If all goes to plan, the telescope will be ready to use in August of 2015… so I have a while to decide. But it pays to be prepared!
Nebulas, galaxies, far away stars… or maybe something in our own solar system? What should it be?
Jonas David 