TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Prospective asteroid mining company Planetary Resources this week said it would outfit its public crowdfunded space telescope, intended to search for near-earth asteroids, with enhanced technologies to enable it to search for extrasolar planets or ‘exoplanets’.

Planetary said it had reached 85% of its $1-million target in only 13 days after launching the 33-day campaign at the end of May, which gave it hope to achieve double the original target by June 30 when the campaign would end.

The company will conduct low-cost robotic space exploration, starting with the Arkyd series of space missions, which would identify the most commercially viable near-earth asteroids.

Planetary said the planned upgrades would add exoplanet transit detection capability by enhancing the telescope’s stability systems and dedicating time to monitor candidate star systems.

An added bonus would be that the upgrade would also allow for better measurement of the spin-properties of asteroids, using the same technique. 

“While the Arkyd won’t rival the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s $600-million Kepler spacecraft, which may have to end its mission due to a recent equipment failure, the enhanced Arkyd will be a huge step toward important new scientific discoveries enabled by citizen scientists,” president and chief engineer Chris Lewicki said.

Using the Kickstarter fundraising platform, Planetary Resources had set a campaign goal of $1-million to be used to launch the telescope, fund the creation of the public interface, cover the fulfilment costs for all the products and services listed in the public-pledge reward categories, and fund an educational curriculum for students everywhere.

The Arkyd space telescope would, from time-to-time, also provide public access to space by placing the advanced exploration technology in the hands of students, scientists and a new generation of citizen explorers.

Eric Anderson and Dr Peter Diamandis started Planetary Resources, in 2009, to establish a new paradigm for resource utilisation with the aim of bringing the solar system within humanity’s economic sphere of influence.