What You Won’t Get To See in the Future (A daring speculation)

You won’t be seeing anything like this on the cover of Amazing Stories –

spaceselfie

Earlier this week, Planetary Resources, the space mining company, announced that it had cancelled one of its crowd-funded projects and was offering refunds to everyone who contributed.

Space enthusiasts are not happy, as many have expressed dissatisfaction with Planetary Resources lack of communication and with the company’s planned refund methods.  One commentator noted that Planetary Resources has been holding onto the crowd sourced donations for more than three years, and asked if they would be receiving a percentage of the interest earned on those funds…

Unknown to most, Amazing Stories was a participant in the Arkyd Space Telescope Kickstarter project, the aim of which was to put a small telescope into orbit (to be used to search for minable asteroids) and attach a “selfie-camera” to it;  funding participants were to be given the right to submit an image that would be placed on a screen on the telescope, and receiving a “space selfie” in return for their contribution.

The amount required was minimal, but the reward was an excellent one – especially for a science fiction magazine.

Seriously, what says “space”, “the future” and “the untold benefits of technology in the future” better than a picture of yourself (or, in our case, the cover of one of our issues, or a title and a group pic of our contributors) in space?

We’ve declined the refund on principal;  the offered reward’s value is FAR in excess of what was paid for it.

Kickstarter is being asked to look into this, but has so far declined to take any action.

Below, the relevant portion of the refund announcement email, and a screen capture of the refund page itself (note the release that is included).

As we recently announced to all ARKYD Kickstarter backers, Planetary Resources is discontinuing its ARKYD Kickstarter project and is offering an immediate and FULL REFUND to all the backers.To claim your full refund now, click your custom link below to complete our refund form. Do not share this link with anyone, it is unique to you and your specific contribution to the ARKYD campaign.

https://kickstarter.planetaryresources.com/?backer=

The link will expire in 45 days, on Monday, 11 July 2016.  After that, Planetary Resources will no longer be able to process refunds.

If you missed the update, the full details are available on this ARKYD Kickstarter update, and despite discontinuing the ARKYD Kickstarter project, we have never been stronger in pursuing our goal of prospecting and mining asteroids, and you can read a recent update about our progress here.

With our sincere thanks for your long-standing support,
The Planetary Resources Team

P.S. – Have any questions? Respond to this e-mail and we will be happy to answer your inquiry, or fill out our Customer Service form HERE. 

 

refund2

We here are very, very disappointed;  going into space has been a lifelong dream that age (and politics) has slowly diminished; the space selfie was one small way of realizing that dream, which itself has now been trampled on.

Time to re-read Heinlein’s Requiem.

Please take a moment to support Amazing Stories with a one-time or recurring donation via Patreon. We rely on donations to keep the site going, and we need your financial support to continue quality coverage of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres as well as supply free stories weekly for your reading pleasure. https://www.patreon.com/amazingstoriesmag

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