[olympus]

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 return on investment and only rocketry enthusiasts with extra money (a rare combination) will be willing to pay for that. The cheaper reward tiers offer a "Master-Class on 3d printing and rocket science" which will have more backers due to the 3d printing information but probably not enough to clear their goal.

I think a better way to spur investment would be offering a reward tier that gives a portion of the company (i.e., a $x investment gets you a y% stake in the company). This is just selling stock in a company off of Wall Street and probably a better fit for a company that isn't offering services or a physical product to the general public. I'm not sure what kind of regulations you have to follow (or if kickstarter would even allow it) but it would certainly open up the field of potential backers to include the folks that know/care nothing about rockets but would like to make some money when the company is inevitably bought out by a larger space launch company like SpaceX.

[nether]

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.

[JumpCrisscross]

>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 into capital.

[olympus]

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.

[infogulch]

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.

[nadirkazan]

I am the creator of this Kickstarter project. Upper stage without lower stage is certainly not reaching space. We didn't want to give people false hope. And the project there is mostly for a promotion, since we're fundraising in Boost accelerator before demo day

[olympus]

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.

[WiseWeasel]

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.

[infogulch]

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

[nadirkazan]

I am the creator of this Kickstarter project. Kickstarter mostly is used to promote the project. We're actually in fundraising mode in Boost accelerator before Demo Day 11th February. I agree with you that Kickstarter is not the best venue to raise money for highly technical project.

[infogulch]

Ah, that explains why the Kickstarter page looked so..., well, sloppy. (No offence.) It seems as if one requires an entire marketing department to start a "proper" kickstarter these days.

[nadirkazan]

This was done mostly to attract attention and publicity. Our team at Boost accelerator is fundraising 500k.

[xerophtye]

ahh. Was gonna email you telling you to offer ad spaces on your rockets (and/or classes) as reqards for the bigger contributions. Would attract corporate ppl.

(Not sre what kickstarter's ToS have to say about this though)