How Kickstarter is helping to promote private space flight Via Acumor

Crowdfunding is helping inventors invent, filmmakers bring their visions to the screen and artists create their own comic books. Yet can this technology-driven approach to funding give a boost to the private space race? A recent story by PCMag boasts a surprising answer: Yes.

First stop: The moon

The PCMag story highlights the efforts of Michael Laine, former NASA engineer and the founder of LiftPort. He’s trying to develop a new, rocket-less way to get to the moon, what he calls a lunar elevator. Will it work? Who knows? But Laine has attracted the attention of investors through a Kickstarter campaign. His goal for the campaign had been to raise $8,000. Instead, it produced a stunning $110,000.

Why it’s needed

When NASA ended its space shuttle program, it provided an opening for private entrepreneurs who have the objective of exploring outer space on their own. And that has left an opening, too, for crowdfunding efforts to help provide the money needed for private space exploration.

The power of crowdfunding

Planetary Resources has turned to crowdfunding, too, running its own Kickstarter campaign with the goal of raising $1 million to create a low-Earth orbit telescope. As PCMag reports, this campaign has been successful, too. The company in just 32 days received $1.5 million from 17,600 supporters.

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(Image Credit – Bing Images )

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