Space exploration is a popular fantasy. And while space travel is becoming more of a reality for the layperson, private flights still cost a few hundred thousand pounds.

The ArduSat won't rocket you out of the atmosphere, but it will give you control over an orbiting satellite.

About the size of a Rubik's Cube, the ArduSat is a miniature cubic satellite (10cm x 10cm) housing a suite of 25+ sensors, including three cameras, a Geiger counter, spectrometer, and magnetometer. Once launched, the ArduSat will be an open platform allowing the general public to design and run their own space-based applications, games and experiments, steer the on-board cameras to take pictures on-demand, and broadcast personalized messages back to Earth.

The ArduSat Kickstarter project has already reached its initial goal of $35,000, and they're about $32,000 shy of a new $75,000 goal. That would mean upgrading the equipment to a "double-sized ArduSat with better camera and sensors, or two single-sized ArduSats for Satellite-to-Satellite communication experiments."

You can donate here, but the $10,000 "Platinum ArduSat Space Partner" title is sold out, so why bother?