Neil Armstrong

There are several ‘space-themed’ campaigns in Kickstarter. To me, this signals that the human species (not just a single culture or nation) wants to go to space. We want to explore and discover; and we want to build something great…

Neil Armstrong is a hero.

Neil died while our community was meeting at the International Space Elevator Conference – held at the Museum of Flight – surrounded by space artifacts.

I’m sorry that I’m so inadequate, but I’m not the kind of guy that can write an appropriate eulogy. The ‘moment of silence’ while attending the conference seemed woefully inadequate to express our collective loss. So after some quiet contemplation over what the man, the myth and the mission meant to me, I decided to do something.

I’ve removed the $10,000 pledge level of “Name Our Robot”. That reward was ‘vanity bait’ for corporate backers to name our ‘bot, and cover it with stickers like a NASCAR racer. In hindsight it seems crass and inappropriate.

But no more.

Neil will get – and deserve – hundreds of statues in his honor. This is our tribute: We, LiftPort, will name the robot we build for this experiment – Neil. And the first robotic car that carries humans – once again – back to the Moon “… Before this decade is out…” will be named – Armstrong.

​Take care,
Mjl
President, LiftPort Group