MAP ALL THE SKY, ALL OF THE TIME
SIGNALS
A SkyMapper Newsletter Volume 3 September 16, 2025
WELCOME
Welcome to the Skymapper newsletter! Join our global community of astronomers, researchers, and enthusiasts as we share the latest in sky monitoring, discoveries, and technology. Stay connected with the expanding universe right from your inbox.
SkyBridge Beta has Launched!
On August 6th, we sent out the beta of our next generation Astronomy tech aimed to democratize space exploration:
We launched with 14 global Beta Testers, confirmed our DePIN network, secured data streaming, and began building the SkyMapper database, successfully achieving Phase I goals of deployment, readiness, and activation.
Wave 2 will test an increase in the number of telescopes, SkyBridges and SkyViewer users.
Successful observations are already coming in:
Nothing gets past SkySphere!
SkySphere, our all-sky camera in development, tracked a drone from low altitude to hundreds of feet up. If we can catch drones, imagine what that means for spotting meteors, satellites and the next transient in deep space.
Partner Spotlight
Secure Data With Akave
We’ve partnered with Akave to secure our SkyMapper data with decentralized, tamper-proof storage, so every star, every snapshot, every enhanced-vision image is preserved with transparency and integrity.
Akave brings S3-compatible APIs, on-chain control, verifiable audit trails, and zoned encryption, helping us ensure observations are stored safely, cost-efficiently, and in a way we can all trust.
Click to learn more about Akave Cloud:
Skymapper news
Closest Exoplanet Yet? JWST Reveals Neighboring Planet Candidate
Watch our own Franck Marchis (SETI Institute) with Julien Girard (STScI) as they unpack NASA’s exciting new potential Saturn-sized world in Alpha Centauri A.
Click to watch the conversation
SkyMapper Becomes VC-Powered
SkyMapper has raised $3M in pre-seed funding to grow our decentralized astronomy network, accelerate SkyBridge and SkyViewer development, expand our telescope and camera network, and fuel our mission map all the sky, all the time.
Click to read the Press Release
EMPLOYEE Highlights
Our wall gets a new NFT (well, almost)!
Galina Mikova
Social Media Manager,
Broadcasting SkyMapper signals across the social galaxy.
Stephen Zepecki
Content and Communications Specialist, Translating cosmic data and Web3 tech into SkyMapper stories for all.
Visiting team members have exhausting fun at Activate!
With our SETI Institute partners setting up LaserSETI stations at Isla Mayagüez in sunny Puetro Rico
SkyMapper introducing Contact, a brilliant tribute to Carl Sagan’s vision, to a new generation of explorers at the SETI Institute
SkyMapper Out & About
EPSC-DPS 2025
The SkyMapper/SETI Institue/Unistellar partnership headed to Helsinki, Finland, where Franck Marchis, Ariel Graykowski and Petr Pokorny spoke to the global planetary science community at the 2025 EPSC-DPS meeting:
Franck discussing the importance and promise of SkyMapper and the convergence of Astronomy and Decentralized Science
Petr spoke on the potential of citizen scientists to observe asteroids emphasizing occultation events by the small main-belt Oersted and light curve of near earth asteroids
Ariel discussing LUSTER, a small aperture telescope for lunar-based asteroid and comet monitoring
And time for friends an colleagues:
What's Next
Next up: October is going to be huge for us! We’re gearing up to officially launch SkyBridge and our updated website, bringing together everything we’ve been building and testing into a powerful, community-driven platform. This is where decentralized astronomy really takes off, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Find US
Whether it’s telescopes or tokens, we’re mapping new frontiers.
Connect with SkyMapper and help us light up the digital sky:
.svg.png)
