Copenhagen Suborbitals Seeking $10k In Crowdfunding For New Space Capsule

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Copenhagen Suborbitals Seeking $10k In Crowdfunding For New Space Capsule

Posted by Soulskill on Friday September 21, 2012 @02:09AM from the cheapifying-the-space-race dept.

Plammox writes "As Copenhagen Suborbitals continue to develop their donation-based, garage-level technology solution to manned suborbital spaceflight, they're looking to crowdfund the next space capsule design. For a mere $25, your name will fly in the next capsule test launch. $2000 will buy you a guided tour of the premises in Copenhagen. The volunteer-based organization has previously done a number of different static engine tests with spectators, and two sea launches of a launch escape system and their first big rocket."

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Crowdfunding? by kooky45 · 2012-09-21 02:27 · Score: 1

When did "crowdfunding" replace the words "charity" or "sponsorship"?
1. Re:Crowdfunding? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-21 02:32 · Score: 1
  
  Right about when "in the cloud" replaced "on the internet" and adding "on a mobile device" became innovation.
2. Re:Crowdfunding? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-21 02:37 · Score: 1
  
  It didn't. Sponsorship does not indicate that they're getting small donations from many people. Charity makes them sound handicapped, when they're doing great things and engaging large amounts of people. Crowdfunding says exactly what it is.
  You are a bit kooky, aren't you?
3. Re:Crowdfunding? by djsmiley · 2012-09-21 02:51 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Sponsorship = one large, or many large companies offering rewards in return for exposure.
  Charity = tax status, possible "good feelings" for donatee
  Crowdfunding = low value donations en mass for negligable reward, possible "good feelings" for donatee
  
  --
  - http://www.milkme.co.uk
4. Re:Crowdfunding? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-21 03:29 · Score: 1
  
  At least the first one carry certain legal baggage, and other usually mean that a few people with deep pockets got involved rather than a whole bunch of people with shallower pockets.
5. Re:Crowdfunding? by blind+biker · 2012-09-21 04:35 · Score: 1
  
  Charity = tax status, possible "good feelings" for donatee
  Crowdfunding = low value donations en mass for negligable reward, possible "good feelings" for donatee
  Correctin: replace "donatee" with "donor". The "donatee" has always good feelings when getting donations.
  
  --
  "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
WTF by udippel · 2012-09-21 02:47 · Score: 1

As much as I adore the resolve of some individuals to advance science and technology, and invest all available resources exactly for that,
and as much as I like to give my small contribution to this dedication and resolve, to advance the ongoing project and maybe even mankind, though:
Do we really need a next generation suborbital space capsule??
1. Re:WTF by I_am_Jack · 2012-09-21 03:11 · Score: 1
  
  As much as we need an iPhone 5 or the next Lady Gaga album, which is to say if there's a group of people willing to spend money to fund it, then yes, there is a need.
2. Re:WTF by Teancum · 2012-09-21 10:38 · Score: 1
  
  I'd like to point out that Copenhagen Suborbital seems to be on the cutting edge of inexpensive spaceflight. While it seems like there are a whole bunch of people who are making capsules, those tend to be major national governments like the United States, Russia, India, or China. That this group of modern day Vikings are able to carry on the tradition of their ancestors in space seems to be icing on the cake.
  The amazing thing here isn't that this is necessarily novel or the first time people have gone into space, but that a private group using essentially just donations and money most people would put into a hobby can be able to pull this off. Some of those involved are retired NASA engineers or Danish military who have the technical expertise to pull this off along with the ability to collectively put in thousands of hours of volunteer time into the project as well as a few bucks on the side to help get tools and things they need to build everything.
  Frankly the $10k that they are seeking for a donation is a drop in the bucket for most spacecraft and really represents just the raw materials needed to build the spacecraft.
Oops; correction by Plammox · 2012-09-21 02:50 · Score: 4, Funny

$2000 will buy you a Cuban cigar that flew in the last launch. My sincere apologies.
Life is one big ponzi scheme by sunking2 · 2012-09-21 03:01 · Score: 1

If everyone sends everyone else just a penny we'd all be rich. Or at least the Post Office would be able to make it's pension payments.
1. Re:Life is one big ponzi scheme by Ginger+Unicorn · 2012-09-21 03:23 · Score: 1
  
  With 7 Billion people in the world, sending everybody else a penny will cost each individual 70 million dollars.
  
  --
  (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
Re:Yea, Me Too! by Githaron · 2012-09-21 03:22 · Score: 2

If you have a working space capsule to go with that story, you might get that money.
These guys don't screw around by jheath314 · 2012-09-21 03:43 · Score: 4, Informative

They conduct their launches from a marine platform that they tow out to sea using the fully functional submarine that they built for a previous project.
Also, in reply to the surprising number of negative responses questioning why a bunch of enthusiasts should build a giant rocket...
a) because it's awesome, and
b) because they can. /. is a community of hackers (in the proper sense of the term), and building your own manned rocket qualifies as an epic hack. Technology shouldn't be just a shiny black box made by a corporation somewhere for us to consume in the approved ways... it should be something we tear apart and put back together, modify it and use it to unconventional ways that were never intended.
The world is full of black boxes, and full of people who want to tell us never to peak inside. Good on these guys for ignoring the nay-sayers and having the courage to build something awesome.

--
Procrastination Man strikes again!
1. Re:These guys don't screw around by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-21 04:00 · Score: 1
  
  Correction: /. used to be a community of hackers.
2. Re:These guys don't screw around by skovnymfe · 2012-09-21 05:44 · Score: 1
  
  It still is. Hacking just isn't what it used to be.
Re:solution to manned suborbital spaceflight by Plammox · 2012-09-21 05:23 · Score: 1

This is not some commercial endeavor. It's more of an art project aiming to prove the feasibility of using off the shelf components to achieve suborbital flight. So far, they only have one prospective passenger, namely one of the two founders, Peter Madsen. If they manage to get him back alive I'm sure other CS members would be ready to take the trip. And if they do end up developing a scalable rocket technology platform, who says suborbital flight will be the ultimate goal?
"Netherlands"? by pnot · 2012-09-21 11:59 · Score: 1

At time of writing, this story is tagged "Netherlands". Is there in fact some connection to the Netherlands here (I can't find one), or is this just geographical delinquency?
(As with arguments over metric/US units, I fear this may trigger a deluge of "STFU OK, Slashdot is a US-based site, deal with it"...)
1. Re:"Netherlands"? by Teancum · 2012-09-21 15:46 · Score: 1
  
  The group is based out of Copenhagen, although there might be some participants and volunteers involved with Copenhagen Suborbital that may be from the Netherlands. That is the only thing I can think of. There certainly is a pretty large group of volunteers working on this rocket, and they are willing to take on additional volunteers if you have something legitimate to contribute or can fill in a skill gap they may have.
2. Re:"Netherlands"? by KozmoStevnNaut · 2012-09-21 22:59 · Score: 1
  
  It's much simpler than that.
  Americans have this odd tendency to confuse Denmark and the Netherlands, for whatever reason. Happens all the time.
  
  --
  Eat the rich.
3. Re:"Netherlands"? by Teancum · 2012-09-22 03:47 · Score: 1
  
  It's much simpler than that.
  Americans have this odd tendency to confuse Denmark and the Netherlands, for whatever reason. Happens all the time.
  That is an over generalization I have never even heard about. That there are Americans who are clueless about geography that would confuse Austria and Australia as being the same country perhaps, or think that Ghana is one of the "low countries of Europe". Then again I've met Europeans who think Los Angeles is an hour drive from New York City.