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3D-printed Aerospike Rocket Engine

kickstarter.com

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Re: 3D-printed Aerospike Rocket Engine

#11

Post by infogulch »

olympus wrote: post #9

I'm not sure this is really a good fit for a Kickstarter project. I love rockets/space/science/etc and fully support researching cheaper launch methods, but for most people to invest, they want to get something back. There are very few people who will/can donate to something on a purely altruistic basis. These guys aren't a charity and I can't even get a tax write-off. Pushing a button, while cool, is not really a re…

How about sending your photo to space and recovering it?

What about sending any tiny object (with weight and size restrictions) into space and recovering it?

The higher levels could offer to send a small custom payload into space (if not orbit) e.g. a smartphone with sensors.

The first two would be more for the novelty (this ring was in space!), where the last might be for a university project or something.

Re: 3D-printed Aerospike Rocket Engine

#12

Post by butThenAgain »

I'd be enthusiastic about nano-satallites, if the space-fairing component of human civilization had established reliable processes for keeping low earth orbit clean and free of orbiting pollution, debris and junk.

The last thing we need is more high-velocity objects being randomly inserted into orbit by hobbyists, when there's no reliable means to clean up the objects left in orbit by predecessors.

http://images.gizmag.com/inline/space-debris-kessler-syndrom...

How about a startup/kickstarter that harvests existing space junk, instead of one that encourages people to haphazardly produce more?

Re: 3D-printed Aerospike Rocket Engine

#13

Post by olympus »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10
olympus wrote: post #9

I'm not sure this is really a good fit for a Kickstarter project. I love rockets/space/science/etc and fully support researching cheaper launch methods, but for most people to invest, they want to get something back. There are very few people who will/can donate to something on a purely altruistic basis. These guys aren't a charity and I can't even get a tax write-off. Pushing a button, while cool, is not really a re…

> Pushing a button, while cool, is not really a return on investment and only rocketry enthusiasts with extra money (a rare combination) will be willing to pay for that. (1) There are a few of us. It feels good to be associated with something breaking ground in this field. (2) This could be a demo, a proof-of-concept. Those are useful in later attracting investment, or at least attention which can be later translated…

RE (1): Sure there are a few people with extra money (judging from your HN profile you are one of their Bagaveev's ideal candidates), and it is really exciting to be involved in new projects. It's more exciting to be involved while potentially making money or to get something more than a feeling of satisfaction.

RE (2): Valid point. Successful Kickstarter campaigns often raise more funding afterwards. But I still think they would like to say, "look at all these people who were willing to risk money by investing in our company" rather than saying, "look at all these people who threw us a bone when we asked for it." Both statements demonstrate an amount of attention, but I think the first is better information to future investors than the second.

Re: 3D-printed Aerospike Rocket Engine

#15

Post by olympus »

infogulch wrote: post #11
olympus wrote: post #9

I'm not sure this is really a good fit for a Kickstarter project. I love rockets/space/science/etc and fully support researching cheaper launch methods, but for most people to invest, they want to get something back. There are very few people who will/can donate to something on a purely altruistic basis. These guys aren't a charity and I can't even get a tax write-off. Pushing a button, while cool, is not really a re…

How about sending your photo to space and recovering it? What about sending any tiny object (with weight and size restrictions) into space and recovering it? The higher levels could offer to send a small custom payload into space (if not orbit) e.g. a smartphone with sensors. The first two would be more for the novelty (this ring was in space!), where the last might be for a university project or something.

These are all things I wasn't even thinking of. They would be great reward tiers. I would love to send a little data logger into space just so I could have my own personal data from space, kind of like the ArduSat Kickstarter. I'm not sure if it would be feasible, but if the price was under $1k for a smartphone sized package I'd go for it. Even if it was timesharing my code with someone else's to make it feasible. I'd pay more for a higher chance of success, but given the two year lead time and unknown chance of success I'd want a discount.

Re: 3D-printed Aerospike Rocket Engine

#17

Post by WiseWeasel »

infogulch wrote: post #11
olympus wrote: post #9

I'm not sure this is really a good fit for a Kickstarter project. I love rockets/space/science/etc and fully support researching cheaper launch methods, but for most people to invest, they want to get something back. There are very few people who will/can donate to something on a purely altruistic basis. These guys aren't a charity and I can't even get a tax write-off. Pushing a button, while cool, is not really a re…

How about sending your photo to space and recovering it? What about sending any tiny object (with weight and size restrictions) into space and recovering it? The higher levels could offer to send a small custom payload into space (if not orbit) e.g. a smartphone with sensors. The first two would be more for the novelty (this ring was in space!), where the last might be for a university project or something.

And at the $50,000 tier, we'll put a 10" wrench with your name on it into the same orbit as your favorite NRO satellite.

Re: 3D-printed Aerospike Rocket Engine

#19

Post by nether »

olympus wrote: post #9

I'm not sure this is really a good fit for a Kickstarter project. I love rockets/space/science/etc and fully support researching cheaper launch methods, but for most people to invest, they want to get something back. There are very few people who will/can donate to something on a purely altruistic basis. These guys aren't a charity and I can't even get a tax write-off. Pushing a button, while cool, is not really a re…

This is fund-my-hobby, albeit a cool hobby. FYI most universities with large aerospace departments have some type of rocketry club developing similar scale motors:

http://spase.stanford.edu/Hybrid_Rocket_Student_Meeting.html

http://web.mit.edu/rocketteam/www/lab.html

http://www.umich.edu/~mrocket/archive/hybrid_i_photos.html

Last link shows some people I know personally, now at SpaceX.

Re: 3D-printed Aerospike Rocket Engine

#20

Post by infogulch »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #17
infogulch wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about sending your photo to space and recovering it? What about sending any tiny object (with weight and size restrictions) into space and recovering it? The higher levels could offer to send a small custom payload into space (if not orbit) e.g. a smartphone with sensors. The first two would be more for the novelty (this ring was in space!), where the last might be for a university project or something.

And at the $50,000 tier, we'll put a 10" wrench with your name on it into the same orbit as your favorite NRO satellite.

There's a big difference between getting something "to 'space'" and getting something into orbit. More than 28,000 km/h difference.
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