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The Universe Spheres: Black Hole Edition

Created by Clemens

Explore Infinite Space Through Timeless Glass. Eternalized Cosmic Wonders in the Palm of Your Hand.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Production in Progress...
10 months ago – Tue, Aug 01, 2023 at 03:26:11 AM

In Short:

  • possibilities for awesome cooperation
  • production nearly finished
  • my wild view on the scale of our universe

My Dearest Backers,

this update took way too long because I was waiting for two emails from potential partners, that we aim to work together with for the next campaign.  I´m so excited to tell you something about it, but to this point, I can't, which drives me a bit nuts.  

One is a famous YouTuber that already helped us with a model, but before we can discuss the possibilities of cooperation, he wanted to see the prototypes, even though, he already told me, he loves our other products.  

The other potential cooperation partner is the Cern...THE CERN... one of the largest and most significant scientific institutions in the world, particularly in the field of particle physics. It is renowned for operating the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, conducting groundbreaking experiments. They are very much interested in our depictions of scientific models, but this as well is not a done deal and I don´t know how much a can speak about it yet.

But I waited long enough and, to be honest, it does not really affect the other information I wanted to share with you, but it occupies my mind and I want to share more information as you can imagine. I´m a big fan of both "institutions" and besides possible business interests, it would be a huge honor for me to work with either of them. 

But Back To Business

The productions end is in sight. within the next two weeks the Spheres, the big and the small ones will be finished and shipped to our fulfilment. 

The first 250 Space Bases will be finished and shipped to us beginning next week. We found a good manufacturer and we are very happy with the samples, so let's hope, that the quality stays the same. These Bases will arrive in our office soon, where we pack them in individual boxes to make sure, they will not be damaged during transport. So these should also arrive in our storage within the next a fortnight .

We will charge the credit cards in a couple of days in order to collect the shipping fees (if you haven´t already paid via PayPal). There are still some people who haven´t answered the survey, so we want to motivate you to do so :)

This all being said, we are pretty close to the beginning of the shipping process! Hooray!

The Powers Of Ten

I also want to share a graphic I made in order to better understand the magnitudes of our world and to get an overview of what we could show in our Spheres in the future. Over the years I got a bit obsessed with the scale of our universe and this graph should invite you to also think about it!

Let's put it like this: 

The Planck length (left) is the smallest theoretical thing that can be, measuring 10^-35m in size. We humans (middle) are approximately 10^0m in size, and the whole observable universe (right) spans 10^24m.

This means, that if we could shrink ourselves to the size of a quark, a human would be as large as the entire observable universe. Conversely, if we were to stretch ourselves to the size of a galaxy, the sun would be like a virus, Earth an atom, humans barely detectable as quarks and we might never know about bacteria, viruses, and other small entities.

This might not be entirely scientific, but since both, the microcosm and macrocosm fall within a range of 10^24m, it is conceivable that there could be something like a "megacosm" within the range of 10^24 to 10^48m. In this scenario, our observable universe might merely be a speck of dust on someone's desk. Therefore, from my perspective, every speck of dust, every spot on my desk or every tiny lasered dot inside our Spheres, essentially everything could contain an entire small "universe." 

This thought is mind-blowing to me, and finding words to articulate this idea is challenging.  What if the universe is actually 10^50m in size? What kind of structures could we find at that scale? Would galaxies be mere atoms of something much larger? Perhaps even only quarks? Or does this idea contradict the laws of physics, making it purely speculative or even impossible from a scientist's perspective?

I will leave you with these thoughts and would be happy about some comments :)  

Have a nice week and best regards, 

Clemens, Jan, and Karja

Clear Way for the Survey
11 months ago – Tue, Jun 27, 2023 at 05:03:49 AM

Hello dearest backers, 

As announced, our survey is going out with this update. It contains options for choosing the motifs of your placeholders booked on Kickstarter and you can order various add-ons as well. 

We highly recommend the Space Bases, as I've had the prototypes on my desk for the past few weeks and find them to be an absolute game changer for all of our Universe Spheres. You can just see them so much better!

The survey is being conducted with Backerkit. Check your spam folder, but if you have any questions, or if the survey hasn't arrived yet, just get in touch at [email protected]

Remember, that we did not charge any shipping costs on Kickstarter, instead planned to do so via the add-on store. We don't want to hide anything and want to communicate openly: the shipping costs are somewhat higher than previously assumed. Especially packages between 2kg and 5kg to the USA are unfortunately almost 15% more expensive. 

Also, we only have tiered prices for some countries, so you might be able to add some stuff without paying extra shipping (0-2kg, 2-5kg, 5-10kg).


We wish you a great day and enjoy the survey!

Bests, Clemens and Team CinkS labs

Forgot to Send at the End
11 months ago – Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 01:53:24 AM

Hey, fantastic backers!

Guess what? We're funded and the campaign is over! But here's the funny part: I somehow forgot to hit the send button for this update last Saturday.  No worries, everything is on track!

We want to thank you for your incredible support! The Backerkit survey is currently under review, but it'll be coming your way this week. Once you get it, you can choose your model and awesome add-ons, so we can kickstart production and deliver your pledges ASAP!

And I have some freakish news I cannot really reveal now, but I´m so excited (that might be the reason for my scatterbrain)!!!  All I can say is that I had a 90min call with a bright star of the scientific youtube community, who loves our Spheres and already started to help us make the prototypes for our next campaign! This is such a huge opportunity, but I don´t want to spoil too much now. Maybe you can guess, who it might be?

I hope, I can tell you more in the next updates! See you in a couple of days with the survey!

Bests, Clemens, and Team CinkS labs

L´End in Sight!
12 months ago – Mon, Jun 05, 2023 at 03:37:09 AM

Hey backers! The campaign is nearly over and I wanted to give you a quick update on our progress and what's coming up. Unfortunately, our entire team got sick with a bad case of angina for nearly two weeks, which threw us off track. But don't worry, we're back on our feet now, though we had to put some things on hold during that time.

Currently, we're working hard on setting up the add-on store/survey featuring many of our previous products for you to choose from or add to your collection. We're especially excited to find out which black hole version you all love the most! Will it be the "Tidal Disruption Event," the "Accretion Disk," or the "Distortion Model"? We'll reveal the results once the survey is over.

And guess what? We're already planning the next and possibly final model in our series of beautiful glass Spheres that explore the vast and stunning scales of our universe. Any guesses on what it might be? I give you a hint: It´s pretty basic but very complex.

Oh, and here's something fun I'd like to do: I want to create a picture series featuring all the Spheres we've made so far. But I need your help! How would you like to see them portrayed? Let me know your suggestions, and I'll make it happen. I hope to get it finished before the campaign ends.

We can't thank you enough for your incredible support. Have a nice day and stay tuned for another Update in the next few days!

Clemens, and team CinkS labs

The Dark Side Of Our Black Hole
12 months ago – Tue, May 23, 2023 at 04:37:56 AM

As mentioned, we experiment with different approaches to "blackout" our Spheres in order to make them more visible in daylight even without an external power source. As a solution for our smaller Spheres, we came up with the Space Base, but 3D printing might be way too expensive for the Big Spheres. Here are some impressions of our results:  

In short:

  • Space Base 3D Print Methods and Materials for the Small Sphere
  • Portable Hole for our Big Spheres
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Cross Promo

In less Short:

Space Base 3D Print Methods and Materials for the Small Sphere

We have created prototypes using two different manufacturing processes: FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) and SLS (Selective Laser Sintering). In short, FDM works like a hot glue gun, applying layers of material, while SLS involves selectively melting plastic powder using laser pulses. There is another method based on exposing liquid UV-active resin, but it is usually the most expensive or least stable option.

As you can see, the FDM method (left) has the least detail and more visible production traces, but the models cost only a third of those produced using the SLS method. The SLS method produces models with almost no visible layers and high stability. For us, there is no question about which method we prefer, but we still wanted to show you the results.

Scaling this base up to fit our Big Spheres would require a cost of over €200 per base. If you believe it is worth it and would consider buying it, please let us know in the comments. I would love to see such a base and think it could look great, but personally, the price is not feasible for me. Hence, we explored our second approach:


Portable Hole for our Big Spheres

Inspired by a computer game from my youth, where you could use a portable hole to stick to a wall and step through it, we came up with a silicone cap for the Black Hole Sphere. You simply stick the cap onto the sphere, and it blackens out the background. The lens effect makes the sphere appear black from a wide viewing angle and enhances the visibility of the lasered interior.

The prototype you see is very rudimentarily made and should be much thinner and more inconspicuous, but I'm still happy with the initial results, I love the sound when the cap sticks to the Sphere and would love to hear your thoughts!

Affiliate marketing

We found a site called Grow, which looks like a website where people can advertise our products and get a commission if someone buys them. This also includes the thousands of automatically Ai-generated comparison platforms that we all know and actually don't like very much :D

Nevertheless, we think it could be a good way to make more people aware of our creations. If you think, you have an audience that you want to show our creations to, feel free to contact us to get a referrer link.

Cross Promo

We also want to do two cross-promotions, but be aware, the Quantum Solar System ends in a couple of hours already!

QUANTUM SOLAR SYSTEM

It's a levitating platform where the planets orbit around the sun.  The planets are exact miniature recreations, and the Sun is a lamp!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/quantumplanets/quantum-solar-system


GET YOURS NOW!

Upgraded LeMat Magnetic Fixer 2.0 - Modernize your Desk Mat

- Wool Organizer with Wooden Magnetic Fixator - Compatible with any Desk Mats! Just Snap-on.
      - Built-in 3 USB - charge your different devices: including Phones, dock stations, tablets, keyboards, mouses, Apple and Android Devices, etc.!
      -  NFC Tag - Build-in NFC TAG For focus Apps to Pop up including Spotify,  Instagram, Facebook, or concentration apps like Pomodoro!
      - Personalization - we can engrave and personalize your Lemat Fixer 2.0

GET YOURS NOW!


As always, we want to thank you for your awesome support and we hope that our campaign will take a further leap with the help of Kickstarter! At least they told us, we will be part of their Newsletter!

So our fingers are crossed and our thumbs are pressed. Have a nice one! Clemens and Team CinkS labs