(Cross-posted from the Hermes blog):
For the past several years, the Hermes Spacecraft has largely been supported by personal funding and the donation of people’s hard work, materials and products. We proudly consider ourselves a grassroots effort, and are always grateful to our fellow supports and enthusiasts.
Along that line of thinking, we’ve set up a Kickstarter campaign to take STAR Systems to the next level. Kickstarter is a crowd-funding website who helps interesting ideas get the funding they need. To date, we’ve done several tests with 2” diameter motors, and we’ve designed and tested a 3” motor. The next step in the process of developing the Hermes Spacecraft and meeting our objectives is to scale up our small-scale hybrid rocket motors to a larger scale, 10” diameter motor capable of putting out about 5,000 lbs of thrust! This rocket will allow us to better test and characterize the propulsion system in preparation for manned, suborbital spaceflight.
Kickstarter lets all of our supporters contribute to our success. We’re offering some nice rewards for each tier of pledge, so please check it out!
Hermes Spacecraft A Technology project in Phoenix, AZ by STAR Systems http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hermesspace/hermes-spacecraft