Ask HN: Funding for friends that are planning a manned space mission
Copenhagen suborbitals (www.copenhagensuborbitals.com)is a private, open source organisation whose mission is to launch human beings into space on privately built rockets and spacecrafts. The project is funded entirely by donations and sponsors. The project is around two years old and things are progressing as planned. There have been numerous successful booster tests, and the first planned unmanned testflight is scheduled for this summer off the coast of Denmark. Last summer there was an unsuccsssful launchattempt where, believe it or not, the mission was jeopardized by a hairdryer that didn't work.

Amazingly they're doing this on a miniscule budget . As it is right now these guys are working fulltime and not getting a dime for their efforts. Their budget for the first half of 2011 is $51.000.

I've recently been involved in starting a support organisation for Copenhagen suborbitals, since their economy is extremely tight. The goal is to secure funding for their endeavour and help them with whatever they may need in the form of equipment, management, press, etc. A project as crazy and amazing as this deserves some support, both financially and otherwise. Since we started this support organisation we've gotten 257 members that each pay $20 a month. All of these members are Danish.

The question is: How do we raise more funding for these guys and their amazing project?

questions we're thinking about:

- Would other nationalities consider becoming a member of the support organisation and pay $20 a month? (In the unlikely event you really want to support this right now my e-mail is in my profile :-))

- Would it be possible for us to get one-time donations from individuals? Either high-worth people or just normal people that think this is cool.

- Should we try to run some kind of international campaign to get users? Since this is all very low budget an international campaign will be a creditcard enabled website and posts on reddit and HN :-)

- Would there be a market for well-paid speaking arrangements where these guys come in and talk about how to build a spacerocket on a budget? (here's a talk one of the guys did on TEDx in Copenhagen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua9oGxNNGd0)

- Would a kickstarter project work?

- Any other ideas for how to raise money for this?

FAQ:

Launching a human being into space is difficult and expensive, can these guys really pull it off? - I'm personally convinced that they will. They've built the worlds largest private submarine as a hobby project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC3_Nautilus, http://www.uc3nautilus.dk/), have had several successful booster tests (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-RT8QfVYc4) and other tests (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_W_g878EdY) so it seems obvious that they know what they're doing.

How exactly will they do it? - They're building a small rocket (64 cm. in diameter, 3.5 meter high, weight 300 kilos) that has a half sitting half standing space at the top for the astronaut. The top of the rocket will have a plexiglass dome so the astronaut has an excellent view. The rocket will propel the astronaut past the barrier to space (100 km) and then parachutes will bring the astronaut safely back to earth.

Isn't this dangerous - Yes.

Where will the money from the support organization go? - All money raised is transferred to Copenhagen suborbitals, except for small amounts used for webhosting, etc. Noone in the support organization is paid.