Author Topic: Moonspike (Read 23128 times)

GWH · « **Reply #20 on:** 10/01/2015 04:25 pm »

Quote from: savuporo on 10/01/2015 03:59 pm

So look at the quotes above. First, they acknowledge that the 1M they are seeking is not nearly enough, not by a factor of 10 to accomplish the project, meanwhile they are offering certain rewards to Kickstarter backers on a certain due date.
Nowhere on Kickstarter page do they explain that this is only 'seed' money to build themselves an aerospace team.

I feel like you edited more to your comment as I was posting - the article you posted that I now read (ok skimmed) does go over my criticism of the project.
OK so I see what they are going for, and obviously am not the only person that thinks the whole ground up approach is too much.
So yeah personally I feel that if this project limited it's scope to only LEO to moon and looked to secure ride sharing in later rounds of fundraising I would be inclined to support it. As the project sits right now the project seems like such a vast undertaking of all or nothing that personally I can't get behind what they are going for.

They would need $4.95M to fly with Spaceflight industries: http://www.spaceflightindustries.com/schedule-pricing/

savuporo · « **Reply #21 on:** 10/01/2015 04:28 pm »

So Bengtsons hobbies got too expensive, he worked out how to spin it into a commercial venture and take his core team with him. Ask public for seed funds while being a little bit disingenuous

savuporo · « **Reply #22 on:** 10/01/2015 07:45 pm »

Nevertheless, this is an interesting read

http://moonspike.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/MS_feasibilityStudy_Oct01_2015.pdf

Their main stages are LOX/Alcohol, with what they call 'pistonless turbopumps' but i can only assume they refer to Flometrics-style (http://www.rocketfuelpump.com/ ) high-pressure helium pumped system, as they have corresponding helium tanks in the design

Prober · « **Reply #23 on:** 10/03/2015 09:56 pm »

Quote from: savuporo on 10/01/2015 04:28 pm

So Bengtsons hobbies got too expensive, he worked out how to spin it into a commercial venture and take his core team with him. Ask public for seed funds while being a little bit disingenuous

Have had several conversations with him when he was doing Wired articles for CS (very enjoyable). Not too sure about obtaining $900,000 on his kickstarter $:-\$

savuporo · « **Reply #24 on:** 10/03/2015 10:26 pm »

Not tracking towards the goal at the moment.
http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/moonspike/moonspike-the-worlds-first-crowdfunded-moon-rocket/

Needs a early trajectory correction maneuver. Like a celebrity endorsement .. hmm

savuporo · « **Reply #25 on:** 10/04/2015 06:28 pm »

So anyone with pointy questions will have the opportunity to ask them today,

"Moonspike founders Kristian and Chris will be doing a Reddit AMA Sunday today at 4PM EDT (NYC time) / 10PM CET."

EDIT: Q/A here : https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3nhf16/we_are_kristian_von_bengtson_chris_larmour_and_we/

Summary : we are looking for a million dollars to hire ourselves for about a year to try and figure out a rocket that could be pointed towards the moon. Also, we'll be looking for about 10x more money if that works. No revenue model, we just like to tool around with rockets

Prober · « **Reply #26 on:** 10/05/2015 01:04 pm »

Quote from: savuporo on 10/04/2015 06:28 pm

So anyone with pointy questions will have the opportunity to ask them today,

"Moonspike founders Kristian and Chris will be doing a Reddit AMA Sunday today at 4PM EDT (NYC time) / 10PM CET."

EDIT: Q/A here : https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3nhf16/we_are_kristian_von_bengtson_chris_larmour_and_we/

Summary : we are looking for a million dollars to hire ourselves for about a year to try and figure out a rocket that could be pointed towards the moon. Also, we'll be looking for about 10x more money if that works. No revenue model, we just like to tool around with rockets

Did anyone follow this event to provide some sort of update?

Would like to get opinions on the pdf released. Is the launcher/lander design of sound design, IYHO?

Jarnis · « **Reply #27 on:** 10/05/2015 01:56 pm »

IMHO they are Kickstarting for the wrong thing.

You *might* get 1M$ through KS for building already-designed-and-verified-to-work launcher (hah, as if you could build one for that sum) that does what they hope to do.

But that would require finding funding the R&D and the test campaign to get to the point where they have a working launcher design - and realistically they are at least missing one zero in the sum, possibly missing two zeroes.

Asking 1M$ for early R&D work on a project that is ambitious, to say the least, with zero chance that they'll ever launch anything for that money is, in my opinion, abuse of Kickstarter.

Looks like potential backers agree - this will never get to the goal. No way.

Edit: Just to clarify a bit:

- I think this is a cool project. Please make it happen. Sorry, I won't back it based on the current project plan.
- I think the Kickstarter project page is potentially "selling too big dreams" to backers, so I'm calling "Kickstarter abuse".

Using a KS project to fund further fundraising while having no actual plan to "ship" what you are "selling" if people come up with 1M$ without several "hopefully we get there" steps along the way is the bit I disagree about. KS projects should work like this: People give you money to do X, you do X (barring completely unforeseen disasters). Note that this does not say "you do X if all the stars align and somehow tons more money is found along the way from other funding sources". Burying that bit into "risks" section far down the page doesn't really work here.

Gary NASA · « **Reply #28 on:** 10/05/2015 03:03 pm »

I always worry when these start ups throw out a kickstarter and do a reddit AMA. Golden Spike did the right thing by going through a big specific site like this and got the support from the industry big hitters. The other route always appears to be a social media grab that doesn't feel like it has enough substance for something serious within the industry.

Wish them well, but they need a better jump off point for this to get the funding.

Beittil · « **Reply #29 on:** 10/13/2015 12:03 pm »

As suspected this is pretty much going nowhere at all. In a few days the halfway mark for the campaign will hit and they have barely gotten above the 10% mark of their goal.

I guess Kristian will have to go about finding an actual job, because the internet won't pony up a salary for this rocket hobby

Beittil · « **Reply #30 on:** 11/02/2015 11:20 am »

Well, didn't see that coming

Quote

Kickstarter Update

We are naturally very disappointed that the Moonspike Kickstarter campaign did not reach its funding goal.

Rik ISS-fan · « **Reply #31 on:** 06/23/2017 04:49 pm »

So I came accros this Parabolic Arc article today.

CEO = Chris Larmour ; CTO = Kristian von Bengtson. Has been developing since 20.
I googled these names and: found this motherboard.vice article.
This leads me to think Moonspice continues as Orbex
They now develop a small launcher with 100-220kg to 200-1250km SSO capability.

I'm sorry if I spoiled something with this post.

Edit: I think this might be related. DLR / IAE L75
More on the L75 here brazilianspace.blogspot.nl

whitelancer64 · « **Reply #32 on:** 06/23/2017 05:41 pm »

Quote from: Rik ISS-fan on 06/23/2017 04:49 pm

So I came accros this Parabolic Arc article today.

CEO = Chris Larmour ; CTO = Kristian von Bengtson. Has been developing since 20.
I googled these names and: found this motherboard.vice article.
This leads me to think Moonspice continues as Orbex
They now develop a small launcher with 100-220kg to 200-1250km SSO capability.

I'm sorry if I spoiled something with this post.

Edit: I think this might be related. DLR / IAE L75
More on the L75 here brazilianspace.blogspot.nl

Fun Fact, Kristian von Bengtson is the architect who designed the inflatable living areas for Mars One.

OrbEx appears to have risen from the ashes of Moonspike, though the goals of the company are not the same, they're working on a small-sat launcher of the same class as RocketLab's Electron.

ringsider · « **Reply #33 on:** 06/24/2017 08:12 am »

Looks like they have some hardware (from the PR):-

Hard to get any scale on that, which I assume is a copper engine, except for the wires in the background.

If you scale to those wires, that engine is about 40-45cm in diameter.

Interesting they kept this so quiet. I can't help feeling those images have been cropped to keep more detail secret as well.