PlanetQuest will acquire its data from as many as six telescopes by its launch. The software is expected to be in its test phase by December. It uses the Crossley 0.9m telescope at the University of California's Lick Observatory and the Siding Spring 1m telescope in Coonabarabran, Australia. The company also recently received $20m in support in the form of telescope time from Dill Faulkes, a British entrepreneur who has set up two fully robotic telescopes on the island of Maui and at the Siding Spring Observatory.
In an interview, Faulkes says inspiring children in the sciences is very important through projects such as PlanetQuest. "I'm concerned about lethargy, particularly in the West, for science. I'm looking for projects that can use today's technology to get kids real experience with the scientific process."
"This is using astronomy to bring science into the home," he says.
PlanetQuest calls its software a "collaboratory," in which people collaborate within astronomy and mathematics to find new planets or stars, as well as with others looking at the same matter. Eventually, the company plans to insert RSS feeds announcing new discoveries among its members. During its initial test phase, it will allow only 50,000 people to install the software, given the limits on its resources. But eventually it aims to host a community of 20 million, according to its founders.
Eventually, PlanetQuest hopes to offer an enhanced version of the software for a fee so the project can be self-sustaining. And with any luck, if it hits a billion users, PlanetQuest hopes to fund its own Kepler Mission, company founders say.
The software will have five levels of education. Level one, called "Sun is your friend," will be for very young students. Level five will be for people who want to know exactly how the algorithms work. Also, a system will exist that allows people to transfer planet coordinates to their home telescopes.
"So they'll point to that star and say, 'It's a million times too faint for me to see, but that's my star. I'm now down in astronomical history as a discoverer,'" Doyle says.
