Golden Spike announce Phase A for commercial lunar landing missions

[StephenB]

So.. they're broke.

I know.. we knew that already, but now the rest of the world does too.

We don't know that. They stated that they were just trying to get public participation and excitement building. I think you need more evidence to say unequivocally that they are broke.

[QuantumG]

So.. they're broke.

I know.. we knew that already, but now the rest of the world does too.

We don't know that. They stated that they were just trying to get public participation and excitement building. I think you need more evidence to say unequivocally that they are broke.

I'm not saying unequivocally that they're broke. I'm saying that the public perception is that only people with no money run crowd funding campaigns. Were they not paying attention when Planetary Resources tried this same trick? There was a 50/50 split between people saying they were broke and people who were very upset that the greedy billionaires were trying to get money out of crowd funding. So which is it? Are they broke or are they greedy?

There's one thing we can say for sure: there's either no public relations professional at Golden Spike or they're just incompetent.

[R7]

1. raise $240,000 by crowdfunding
2. ???
3. Sell $1,500,000,000 moon trips

Have faith, it'll work

[Robotbeat]

1. raise $240,000 by crowdfunding
2.
3. Sell $1,500,000,000 moon trips

Have faith, it'll work

They're just seeking to expand their start-up capital and especially the exposure. It's a pretty good idea, actually, since people are thus /paying/ you for publicity (in exchange for insight into your company and ability to feel like they're part of something exciting).

Crowd-funding like this is a new thing, doesn't mean it's dumb.

[R7]

What do they need the exposure for? Unlikely to dramatically increase the demand for their service.

[Robotbeat]

What do they need the exposure for? Unlikely to dramatically increase the demand for their service.

To raise their profile for other venture capital, and especially to attract talent for cheaper.

[R7]

To raise their profile for other venture capital

Isn't the exposure here to VC that "Hey we didn't get VC so we ask the public" ?

[Robotbeat]

To raise their profile for other venture capital

Isn't the exposure here to VC that "Hey we didn't get VC so we ask the public" ?

Hardly. If they just wanted straight funding (from the public or whathaveyou), a kickstarter or indiegogo campaign with prizes and such is much more trouble than it's worth. This is for exposure.

[QuantumG]

To raise their profile for other venture capital

Isn't the exposure here to VC that "Hey we didn't get VC so we ask the public" ?

Hardly. If they just wanted straight funding (from the public or whathaveyou), a kickstarter or indiegogo campaign with prizes and such is much more trouble than it's worth. This is for exposure.

What?

If you want exposure, you buy ads, go on talk shows and generally do this little thing called "public relations".

If you want money and can't get any investors, you do crowd funding.

This isn't for "exposure". This is straight up begging.

[ciscosdad]

I think the crowdfunding is a great idea.
I'll probably give them a few dollars too.
God knows we need some positivity here. naysayers are all to common.


edited spelling

[KelvinZero]

Rich bored arabs or other countries shelling out billions never struck me as a serious plan. It would also be silly to assume they are that incompetent.

 I couldnt ever see any way this makes sense except as a call for a HSF coup.

How could politicians keep justifying their current behavior to the public if a plan like that was put on the table, endorsed by credible companies? They might try pulling the CEOs before committees and accusing them of unamerican behavior, but the more publicity it got, the sillier they would look.

I think I will donate a few dollars. Of course it is not buying hardware or replacing a customer. Its buying a bit of public awareness of the issues that have dominated this forum for quite a while now.

[Lar]

Although I am disappointed they don't have serious backing lined up I probably will throw a few bucks in too.  Beats losing it at the casino.

Update: Apparently some posts got trimmed. Reposting without the bit that might have caused mine to get included in the trimming...

I did in fact just go give them a pittance. We'll see if it works out as well, proportionally, as an L2 subscription here does.

[Martin FL]

The offers for money are terrible. A letter of thanks. Put on their mailing list. etc.

[spectre9]

They were dishonest to begin with.

"We're going to the moon without government assistance" is not a claim people without any funding should ever make.

That's bad publicity in the extreme.

They should disband, they're not doing human spaceflight any good.

[mlindner]

To raise their profile for other venture capital

Isn't the exposure here to VC that "Hey we didn't get VC so we ask the public" ?

Hardly. If they just wanted straight funding (from the public or whathaveyou), a kickstarter or indiegogo campaign with prizes and such is much more trouble than it's worth. This is for exposure.

What?

If you want exposure, you buy ads, go on talk shows and generally do this little thing called "public relations".

If you want money and can't get any investors, you do crowd funding.

This isn't for "exposure". This is straight up begging.

Most people I know use ad-blockers (including myself) and pirate TV shows otherwise (other than sports) so they would never see the ads.

20 something up-and-coming engineers don't watch talk shows much, heck they don't watch TV much (besides sports). If they want to increase their popularity with that age range, crowd funding and IAMAs on reddit are two of the the best ways of doing it IMO.

(Talking from personal experience I only watch talk shows that involve Elon Musk and talking to fellow engineer student friends the most I've seen of them watching anything "on TV" is pirating episodes of Game of Thrones.)

[QuantumG]

Who said anything about attracting engineers? THEY DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY. What are they going to pay them with?

If the goal of running this Indiegogo is to attract billions of dollars in investment capital, then I think that speaks for itself.

[mlindner]

Who said anything about attracting engineers? THEY DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY. What are they going to pay them with?

If the goal of running this Indiegogo is to attract billions of dollars in investment capital, then I think that speaks for itself.

This is more long term I believe. They want to pull more young people into the space industry.

[QuantumG]

This is more long term I believe. They want to pull more young people into the space industry.

And where are you getting this information from?

[Robert Thompson]

$100

[Ben the Space Brit]

$100

That gets you one-millionth of the way to the moon or ~400m.  It's still cheaper than renting a piston-engine plane to go to that altitude.