Probably the most awesome Kickstarter I've ever backed. I'm so excited!!! Planetary Resources is a really cool company.
I think they are just running a really cool scam. First of all why do they care if public is interested in space? Aren't they after all, looking to run a successful and profitable business? Second, don't they have investors that could sponsor this Arkyd Telescope and launch it without need for a Kickstarter. What if for some reason the kickstarter campaign doesn't work? What if they can't deliver? Are they willing to risk everything just to get 1mln$? Unless they are already out of money.
I could be talking out of my ass here, but with the amount of money that's been pumped into PR (> $1B USD IIRC) by its big-name founders, why do they need to do this? Satellites are cool and all, but everything I see out of them is just "YOU GET INVOLVED" and "SOCIAL" - and not much on "How do we capture and capitalize on mineral resources in space?"
If this works, the amsat.org people should kickstart a fundraiser to get the legendary geosync sat up there. I'd be happy just with AO-40 redux, or a fleet of FM ez sats. Or maybe the mythical mars sat.
could some 100s of those small telescopes be used with interferometry to get a better picture?
This seems mostly to be a PR gimmick. While it seems like a cool thing to do "just because we can", there is no compelling advantage to putting a 200mm telescope in space. You don't get much sharper images by being in space with such a small aperture. And launching a space telescope for people to take pictures of themselves... I don't even know where to start.