How much would you pay to tweet from space? That's the question Tim DeBenedictis is answering through his Kickstarter project SkyCube, which is a nano-satellite currently in development that will orbit the Earth and broadcast messages uploaded by sponsors.
As it orbits the earth, SkyCube will snap low-resolution photos of the Earth and broadcast the aforementioned messages. But that's just the beginning. After 90 days, it will inflate a 10-foot diaper balloon that will be covered in reflective titanium dioxide powder. This will make it as bright as the Hubble Space Telescope or a first-magnitude star.
In other words, you'll be able to see it from your little patch of Earth.
The balloon serves a dual function, though: after three weeks, it'll bring the SkyCube down from orbit, offering a clean end to the mission.
Since the satellite has to send data pings to Earth every 10 seconds to prove it's still functioning, the creators decided to include user-generated data with these pings, which they're calling "tweets from space." All donors need to tweet from space is the Internet. In the same way, anyone can request the photos it'll be taking as it circles around.
At the time of my writing this, it has 299 backers who have pledged $10,444 of the $82,500 goal with 51 days to go.
