A Hubble-type telescope that even you can use - Times of India

MUMBAI: It will be a space revolution. On Thursday, a privately-funded US space organization, Planetary Resources, announced plans to launch a telescope called Arkyd — a name inspired by Star Wars. But what makes it different? It will be the world's first publicly-funded telescope which can be used by anyone, even students at the primary level globally. Planetary Resources was founded in 2009 with the idea of establishing "a new paradigm for resource utilization which will bring the solar system within humanity's economic sphere of influence,'' according to the organization . Its focus is on asteroid mining. Similar to Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope, Arkyd will be designed to take high resolution photos in deep space. But, Hubble is accessible only through a competitive selection process in which 200 proposals are chosen annually . Arkyd will be available to everyone. The total cost of the Arkydproject is expected to be around $1million. On Thursday, two hours after it was announced at a media briefing in Seattle more than 700 persons backed the programme pledging a sum of $96,000. The deadline for receiving the total amount of $1 million is June 30, 2013. Once this funding materializes, Planetary Resources will fix a launch schedule. Weighing 15kg, with a peak power of 50 Watts, the telescope will operate from an altitude of 354km. Orbiting at a velocity of 8km per second, it will have the capacity to continuously observe the night sky. It will have an external screen and camera which will allow people on earth to take pictures. via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGRYSYOk4HTBhxfMXbNVGCqsfGjgA&url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/A-Hubble-type-telescope-that-even-you-can-use/articleshow/20359513.cms

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