"Arkid" is a fairly small telescope: the weight of the satellite is about 15 kg, and the length of its solar panels is about 60 cm. It is expected to fly at an altitude of 500-600 km, and operate for at least three years. It will also be equipped with an innovative laser system for optical communication with CDWA, which currently does not exist in other telescopes.
The Israeli Astronomical Society will receive observation time at the first social telescope, Arcade.
Arkyd is a fascinating social enterprise: more than 13,000 individuals and organizations have so far contributed more than 1.1 million dollars to finance the first community space telescope. The money will finance the construction and launch - in about two years - of a satellite telescope designed for photographing objects in space, and planned to be used first and foremost for locating asteroids - both those that may harm the Earth, and those that may contain valuable resources, such as platinum, which we may one day be able to mine (or frozen hydrogen which can be used to propel spaceships).
The time to use the telescope will be divided among the main contributors to the project, but the Israel Astronomical Society has been informed that it will receive considerable observation time, even though it did not directly participate in the financing of the telescope. The organization that owns the project, Planetary Resources, decided to grant the association the viewing time thanks to its activity in the field of scientific education. "We have limited telescope time and there are a lot of objects to observe. The choice of what to observe and familiarity with the project should encourage teamwork to choose the goal," says the association's CEO, Oded Avraham. "This way we will get the most not only from the photography itself, but from the process itself, and the work towards the activity with the satellite."
space over time
"Arcade" (named after a company that manufactures spaceships in the "Star Wars" movie series), is a fairly small telescope: the weight of the satellite is about 15 kg, and the length of its solar panels is about 60 cm. It is expected to fly at an altitude of 500-600 km, and operate for at least three years. It will also be equipped with an innovative laser system for optical communication with CDWA, which currently does not exist in other telescopes.
The Astronomical Society has not yet decided how to divide the observation time with the telescope, which will fall into their hands as mentioned only in about two years. One of the possibilities is to contact schools and other educational bodies, which will develop research proposals with the students, as a study tool.
The educational activity with the Social Space Telescope is promoted in Israel by Midad Farinta from the "Spatialist" company, Dodi Zosiman from "Halel Kommunikation" and Tal Inbar from the Fisher Institute - all three of them do this completely voluntarily.
One response
The small weight of the telescope and the low cost of its implementation are within the capabilities of the State of Israel. The question is why not enter an Israeli venture a little further. And I mean the moon. Take the Shavit launch vehicle that was used to launch the Horizon satellites and attach several boosters to it. For example, to the side of the first stage, attach units similar to it that will serve as the first stage. When the launch vehicle reaches a certain height, these units are disconnected and then the first stage engine is ignited which is now used as the second stage. A spacecraft weighing a little over 15 kg will be placed on the nose of the rocket and will be launched into orbit around the moon. It is certainly possible to build a framework for international cooperation.