The Home Stretch...
The Home Stretch
We're less than 72 hours away from the Hermes Project ending. We made a HUGE leap towards our goal thanks to a few large backers. We've also seen several other new backers come on board, and some previous backers increase their pledges to help us reach our $20,000 goal. Thank you ALL for your support. You are going to carry us through our goal. Please continue to help us spread the word, every little bit of support counts!
Interviews & Rocket Firings
This past Sunday (4/22/12) we had our local news station (Channel 3 - Phoenix) come out and shoot a story on the Hermes Spacecraft and our progress.
During the interview, the camera guy mentioned the media likes seeing action shots... so of course we offered to fire off one of our 2" motors for him (in fact, the one you see Morris holding in the picture above).
In less than 15 minutes, we went from no prep to a successful firing. We've tweaked a few things in between the night firings you've seen on the video and this one: we changed the thermal barrier inside the casing, improved the design of our injector assembly, and adjusted the area ratio of our nozzle to provide us the proper shock expansion given the rest of our parameters.
Of course we did not set any cameras up on our own because we had a professional with 30k worth of gear shooting for us!
Our news story was supposed to air that day, but they decided they wanted to edit our piece more, and it has been pushed to next Sunday (4/29). This is good news for us in general because the news organization liked our story enough to expand on it (perhaps we'll get a full feature instead of a few second fluff piece). The bad news is, we are not able to get the rocket firing footage until the piece airs, so we cannot show you this rocket burn until after our funding round closes.
This is one of the many times we've experienced (and I'm sure you have all experienced) our ideal timeline being unexpectedly delayed... we all just have to roll with the punches.
Up Next...
Tomorrow, I'm going to post another update outlining our schedule for the next several weeks and months. I may also post some footage of our experiments with some of our thermal barriers.
Thanks all!
321
Backers
$20,843
pledged of $20,000 goal
0
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Funding period
Mar 29, 2012 -
Apr 28, 2012
(30 days)
- First created · 11 backed
- Mark Longanbach 249 friends
- Website: hermesspace.com
Pledge $5 or more
66 backers
Your name will appear on a special 'backer' page on our website, hermesspace.com
Estimated delivery: May 2012Pledge $10 or more
81 backers
Hermes Stickers - You'll get a large sticker of the Hermes logo you can put on your own rocket... or something more reasonable like a laptop.
Estimated delivery: May 2012Pledge $25 or more
65 backers
Hermes Exclusive Access - Receive exclusive announcements of our major milestone accomplishments and important updates before the general public. We'll also throw in access to a live feed for our first engine test firing.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $75 or more
57 backers
Join the Hermes Pit Crew - You'll get a T-Shirt or Polo Shirt (your choice) with our logo on the front and "Hermes Pit Crew" on the back. We'll also sign your name on the Hermes Test Motor and film it for you before we do our first engine firing.
Estimated delivery: Jun 2012Pledge $150 or more
12 backers
Personalized Payload - On the Hermes maiden test flight, we'll have a special Kickstarter payload capsule on board, which will contain your name and a personalized message. After it's successfully gone to space, we'll send it back to you!
Estimated delivery: Jul 2014Pledge $250 or more
4 backers
Rocket Engine Paper Weight - You'll get a miniature replica of the Hermes Test Motor, machined and assembled at our shop out of polished stainless steel. A perfect way to keep those pesky papers from launching off your desk!
Estimated delivery: Jun 2012Pledge $500 or more
6 backers
Handcrafted Hermes Model - Here's your opportunity to get a 1/20th scale Hermes Model, created, shaped, sanded and painted at our shop. Each model will come with a certificate, signed by the Hermes Team and include pictures of the team making your specific model.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $1,000 or more
1 backer
Hermes Team Skype - The Hermes Team founders will set up a 1 hour video session with you and your family, friends, coworkers, or students. We'll go over the state of the aerospace industry, our plans for the next year or two, show you how we create our engines in the shop and answer any questions you have about what we do or anything about space!
Estimated delivery: Jun 2012Pledge $5,000 or more
1 backer
Sky High Advertisement - Earn your place in history by being one of the few people who have advertised on a spacecraft. We'll proudly reserve a spot for your name, company, or whatever you'd like to see on the skin of the Hermes, up through it's first test launch.
Estimated delivery: Jul 2012Pledge $10,000 or more
0 backers
Ignition - You'll get round trip with accommodations to the first Hermes Test Motor firing. We'll show you around our shop, teach you how to build a rocket engine, and then we're off to the desert to fire our test engine. Be the first to pledge here and we'll let you press the ignition button.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012
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