Rocket. Yeah

That's iteration one. Two ought to be coming up soon (in a month +/- with better machining). Those of you that bought tank space. They'll appear on the centerline tank. It's 20 1/2 inches dia. Wind River is getting one tank and so is AirGas. The remaining sponsors will get the last LOX tank on a per contribution basis like the word cloud the individuals did.

Team Phoenicia PayPal Drive: ouch

We've hit 1.8 2.3 2.7 3.0% of what we need.

*sighs*

We have a week to raise the money too. :S I know we can do this. You guys have GOT to have $20. We have a lot of tank space we can sell still.

Whether or not we are officially in the LLC, we're going to fly.

BTW, thank you, Becca. And Alden. And Verrill. And Matt.

Team Phoenicia Pay Pal Drive Update

We're now at 1.5% of our goal with 4 donors. I know we can do better than this. 4 people in 72 hours isn't that good. I absolutely know we can do better.

Ad astra per luna (and perhaps per silicas, ;))

Team Phoenicia Paypal Drive: Talk About Disappointing!

24 hours and we've had a SINGLE donation, folks! That's really disappointing.

As a reminder, those donating get a mention on the blog and their name on one of the tanks proportional to their contribution. Twenty dollars will get you a 1 cm by 2 cm name on the side of the centerline RP-1 tanks we are reserving for this.

Team Phoenicia: Paypal Drive

Folks,

Last year, all of you were quite generous to help out with the paypal drive for Team Phoenicia by placing a post on your blogs. Some of you even gave money as well. For those that did, I am doubly thankful. This year we have been even more successful in raising backers for Team P and in some cases they have been spectacular coupes: AirGas is the greatest one. However, /none/ of our backers have been ones that have provided us with cash. It's come out my pocket and those that supported us last year.

This year the X Prize Foundation has raised the entry fee to $7k from $1k. I cannot cover that. While I am begging as fast as I can, ahem, asking for monetary support for our team from sponsors, we are running out of time: we have until September 14th to submit our paperwork. And fees.

Our rockets have made great progress. The Wind at Dawn is virtually complete. The last pieces should be in place in the next week or so. The Pale Glow of the Stars is nearing completion as well: tanks are on their way. The Bright Flash of Chicxulub is being manufactured now. We are so close, folks, to flying the rockets. And, yes, we are building multiple ones so we may have some chance of one making it: rockets are prone to crashing, even when flown by the pros...and we've been learning vast amounts, but still not /quite/ a pro yet.

Those that do will get a mention on the blog and their name on one of the tanks proportional to their contribution. Twenty dollars will get you a 1 cm by 2 cm name on the side of the centerline RP-1 tanks we are reserving for this.

The team blog is here and the team website is here. We are participating in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

If we go over the $7k, there is always more to pay for and with Baby Baird due in about 2 weeks...

Thank you all: to contribute click below or go to the team website.

Team Phoenicia: Once More with Feeling (alas)

I really did NOT want to have to make this appeal again. It's frustrating and I put it off because I didn't want to do this at all. However, i am going to have to ask for the paypal drive again. The X Prize Foundation increased the entry fee from $1k to $7k. I don't have $7k. Not even close. To make matters worse, we have a baby due on September 7th, so what money I do have I have to be careful with.

The level of competition that we are competing for - the second level in the Lunar Lander Challenge- is likely to be closed out this year.: there are enough competitors that will probably fly for the level two competition that we need to fly or we're not likely to get our chance to secure a prize. The PR from this is really needed so we can go onto the Google Lunar X Prize. Ironically, and amusingly, this is the one year that the X Prize Foundation really would get the benefit of having a singular event rather than the competition season. Ah well.

I realize that times are tight. However, if people would please contribute, whatever you can, through the pay-pal link on the main team site, it'd be awesomely appreciated. Bloggers, if you would, please, go a bit viral and spread the word. I know a number of you get much, much higher traffic than I do. The team blog is here, btw.

Thank you all again.