Threadbare UK moon landing funded by Kickstarter, public charitable contributions - Video

A British-led consortium has outlined its plans to land a robotic probe on the Moon in 10 years' time, despite, and because of, UK government's lack of investment in science and innovation.

Its aim is to raise £500m for the project from Kickstarter, i.e. donations by the public.

In return, donors would be able to have photos, text and their DNA included in a time capsule which will be buried under the lunar surface.

Lunar Mission One aims to survey the Moon's south pole to see if a human base can be set up in the future.

The plan has received the endorsement of a host of well-known scientists and organisations.

These include Prof Brian Cox, the Astronomer Royal Lord Rees, and Prof Monica Grady of the Open University.

David Iron, who is leading the project, said he was setting up the initiative because governments were increasingly finding it difficult to fund space missions.

"Anyone in the world will be able to get involved for as little as just a few pounds. Lunar Mission One will make a huge contribution to our understanding of the origins of our planet and the Moon," he said.



Immortality

The team hope to raise £600,000, using the international crowd funding web service Kickstarter, in the next four weeks to fund the initial phase of the project.

For the next four years, funds will be received through contributions from the public, who will be able to buy digital storage space on the lander for their own personal text messages, pictures, music and videos.

They will also be able to pay for an immortality of sorts by sending up a strand of their hair, which the project team claim could survive for one billion years.

The cost of a short message will be a few pounds, a compressed photo will be a few tens of pounds while a short compressed video will be about £200. The cost of sending a hair sample will be around £50.

The lander will also contain a public digital archive of human history and science which will be compiled as a legacy which will survive even if our species becomes extinct.

Mr Iron believes the fact that people will have a stake in the mission will make it all the more engaging.

Legacy

"The project's long-term legacy will be a new way of funding space exploration," he told reporters.

"Rather than just watching the mission, people can be directly involved, not just through funding but helping to make key decisions such as the selection of the landing site or what should be included in the public archive."

All the money raised by the project will go to funding the mission, and any money left over will be put into a charitable trust whose proceeds will be spent on future space exploration. Mr Iron described it as "a Wellcome Trust for space exploration".

The mission will also have a scientific component. The aim is to drill and analyse a sample from underneath the lunar surface, something which has never been done before.

A key aim of the project is to educate and inspire a new generation to become engaged in science in the same way that the Apollo Moon landings did in the 1960s and 70s, and as indeed the Rosetta landing did just last week.

Deltaprintr offers cheap easy to use 3D printer - Kickstarter

Two college students (Shai Schechter and Andrey Kovalev) have launched a Kickstarter project aimed at bringing an easy to use and affordable 3D printer to the masses—one they have designed themselves.

Called the Deltaprintr, the device is a novel pole based design that uses fishing line instead of traditional belts.

By using an open air design (and fishing line) instead of the traditional Cartesian style box, the Deltaprintr allows for quicker printing (it eliminates the need for the print-head to perform unnecessary movements) easy expansion (the ability to print taller objects)—and for more easily performing leveling calibration (it's automatic in some instances), something that can't be said for most other 3D printers being sold.

But what truly sets the Deltaprintr apart is price: one fully assembled printer costs just $675. Surprisingly, the low price doesn't mean giving up quality either—the Deltaprintr 's 4mm tip is capable of 100 micron resolution.


The printer in its default configuration allows for printing objects up to 12 inches high, but that can be increased by the owner replacing the fishing line with longer strands.

Schechter and Kovalev also promise to allow for printing taller creations in the future when they will offer longer side rails.

One drawback (though some may consider it a positive attribute) is that the printer only prints using 1.75mm PLA (as opposed to ABS plastic). The upside is that the bed doesn't get hot and create a burn hazard.

Another attribute of the Deltaprintr is its simple elegance—watching it in action is reminiscent of scenes from utopian sci-fi movies where everything works easily and smoothly and in many cases, with grace.

That perfectly describes this new type of printer with its print-head dancing in the air as it lays down layer upon layer of new material, creating, for the most part, works of art.

The design has clearly captured the imagination of online visitors to Kickstarter—the goal of $195,000 has nearly been met, and orders have already exceeded initial expectations.

What's perhaps even more promising is the prospect of even cheaper models in the future should sales grow to the point of allowing mass production.

Pakistan adopts Chinese GPS satellite system, despite cheap, unreliable service

Pakistan is set to become the fifth Asian country to use China's cheap domestic satellite navigation system which was launched as a rival to the US global positioning system.

The Beidou, or Compass, system started providing services to civilians in the region in December and is expected to provide global coverage by 2020. It also has military applications.

Thailand, China, Laos and Brunei already use the cheap Chinese system, which currently consists of 16 operational satellites, with 30 more due to join the system.

Huang Lei, international business director of BDStar Navigation, which promotes Beidou, stated that the company would build a network of stations in Pakistan to enhance the location accuracy of Beidou.

He said building the network would cost tens of millions of dollars.

American website Defensenews.com reported early May that Pakistani military experts were in favour of using the Chinese system, even though the availability of the signal could not be guaranteed in case of conflict.

But according to one of them, Pakistan "cannot place its trust in the United States."

"Pakistan's armed forces cannot rely on US GPS because of its questionable availability during a conflict that has overtones of nuclear escalation," former Pakistan Air Force pilot Kaiser Tufail told the site.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang travels next week to Pakistan, a long time ally, after a visit to India.