Planetary Resources Hits $1M Pledge Goal for Space Telescope

Bellevue's Planetary Resources, a company that aims to mine asteroids for natural resources, has reached its $1 million Kickstarter goal to build a space telescope.

The project called for $1 million in pledges from the public, and the company offered contributors varying degrees of access to the telescope, according to the company. On Wednesday, the company announced that it had surpassed the $1 million mark with more than 11,000 backers.

Planetary Resources unveiled the plan on May 29, and netted $300,00 in pledges its first day.  

On Wednesday, the company said it is on its way toward its stretch goal of up to $2 million, which would allow the company to add enhancements that would enable the telescope to monitor alien planets. 

To entice backers, the company added new incentives.

Check out the company's Kickstarter page.

The company announced plans last year to explore and mine natural resources from near-earth asteroids, which could expand the possibilities for space travel.

The company's crowd-funded space telescope project will allow public access to space and "place the most advanced exploration technology into the hands of students, scientists and a new generation of citizen explorers," according to a company press release. 

High-profile supporters include Virgin’s Richard Branson, actors Brent Spiner, Seth Green and Rob Picardo, Bill Nye the Science Guy, futurist Jason Silva, and MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager.

Contributors at various support levels can get access to the telescope to display an image on it, access the main optic to explore space or use it in a classroom setting, according to the company.

Planetary Resources involves ex-NASA and ex-Microsoft employees, as well as a star-studded slate of investors and advisers, including Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, filmmaker James Cameron and Microsoft's former Chief Software Architect Charles Simonyi, who has traveled to space as a tourist aboard Russian Soyuz crafts.

The company, founded by Eric Anderson and Peter H. Diamandis, is banking that the future of space exploration depends on being able to gather resources in space. The company's first missions will use robots, though human miners are expected to be employed in the future, officials said, and the company's first prospecting Arkyd-100 spacecraft could launch within two years, said Chris Lewicki, president and chief engineer at a press conference last year.

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