NanoRacks and its parent company, XO Markets, are excited to announce they are creating a new company dedicated to lowering the barriers to student and university research: DreamUp, PBC.
As such, we join the ranks of Ben & Jerry and Kickstarter, just two of the growing number of companies that have been incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation.
PBC’s are commercial organizations whose by-laws urge shareholders and management to do more than turn a profit: they also seek to undertake some public good in a series of defined mandates. Until now, in our society, companies must focus only on the bottom line. Benefit Corporations are different: they can and must do more for society.
For DreamUp, the goals are simple: we will strive to make space research a viable part of students and university researchers. We will seek to make crowdsourcing a far more efficient tool for space-based projects. And within a few short years we aim to have teachers and students from all fifty states and a dozen countries worldwide enjoy the benefits of real STEM experience via the unique environment of space.
Previously, DreamUp has stood as the educational arm of NanoRacks, the go-to company for commercial access to space. Explains Jeffrey Manber, the chairman of the board for XO Markets, “we realized the time has come to tap the expertise of a whole new set of dedicated professionals in order to leverage our existing foundation. We are proud of our educational partners and customers across the world that utilize DreamUp today. Now we are ready to take space-based education to a whole new level.” DreamUp will continue to utilize the in-house experts to ensure DreamUp PBC continues to offer unprecedented opportunities for students, researchers, and innovators. To date, DreamUp and NanoRacks have launched over 200 unique educational payloads to the International Space Station
DreamUp brings the adventure of space down to earth. Teachers in the STEM fields are looking for hands-on, creative project for their students. A space investigation provides real engineering experience that takes them from prototype to testing to flight. What schools want is for students to embrace their curiosity, a change for real trial and error in design, and the feedback DreamUp has received is that the projects we offer fill that need in an authentic way. We hear feedback from our education customers that this experience is a priceless gift for students. We believe passionately that as a Public Benefits Corporations we can accept investments towards a more inclusive program in which all U.S. students can experience this epic adventure by 2022.” saysPatricia Mayes, DreamUp Director
These plans also allow for DreamUp to focus further on crowdfunding efforts for space-based research. Crowdfunding has become an extremely popular method for funding research on the ground, as well as in-space research. Earlier this year, one of DreamUp’s teams experienced a successful crowdfunding campaign that will allow three high school sisters to achieve the dream of testing their plant growth chamber in microgravity. Using experiment.com as the fund-raising platform, Chicks in Space reached their monetary goal with help from the public, the space community, friends, family and the DreamUp team. Currently the Chicks are getting the hardware ready for a 2016 test on the International Space Station.
DreamUp is also pleased to continue offering opportunities beyond the International Space Station, for Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle, offering educational rates on their reusable suborbital launch system. See Blue Origin’s recent historic rocket landing here.
We hope you join us on this journey of creating a world where every innovator has access to space. We’ll be sharing more information as we move further along in our development process, and in the meantime, be sure to follow us on twitter at @DreamUp_Space to see what our researchers are launching to the International Space Station and beyond.
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