Tech Times Interview, Shoot the Moon Update, and Crowdfunding Cautions

Heya, 

Today I spent two hours on the phone with a reporter, Andrea from Tech Times. She was thoughtful, and asked insightful questions. Some of these were things that no one had ever asked… That was unexpected. We went into a lot more personal stuff about my history and how one becomes “The Space Elevator Guy”. I don’t usually do those sorts of interviews. I usually say: “it’s not about me; it’s about the project.” As a personal favor to her editor, I went ahead with it. She was persistent; she kept coming back, saying that folks already knew a little about the Elevator, but that most people didn’t know anything about how I got to this place. It was an odd conversation. The act of linking my experiences together was strange. Seriously, how would you compress 47 years into 2 hours – and justify the choices/serendipity/luck/mistakes you’ve made along the way? Try it! 

Despite her science / biology background, this was her first exposure to space stuff in general, and the Space Elevator specifically. We had to go into a lot of detail about how the Lunar system is constructed, and why it matters. I was relieved that I didn’t have to explain that the Ribbon does not connect the Earth to the Moon, or that there was no such thing as ‘anti-gravity’. You’d be surprised how many people don’t understand that. I’m constantly amazed! 

She recorded the interview, but I’m not sure how she will use it. There’s way more in that conversation than she could use in a simple article. So she’s going back to her editor (Brian) to get some direction on how to handle it. She says we can expect this to be posted either this Thursday (unlikely) or next Thursday. 

Of note, Brian backed our campaign back when he was working for Edgadget. It was he and Ben that did this early interview of David and I working on the ‘bot. 

Unrelated and coincident, I talked to Alexis (also a backer, also worked for Engadget, also working with Ben on the documentary) for a recent update. Their movie is getting closer. They have an ultra-rough draft. I asked if I could see it, or it if was still ‘top secret’. No luck; still a secret. I have no idea what they are going to ultimately end up with. Recently, they were in Arizona talking with a couple PhD’s. They said that trip went well… I don’t know anything more about it. 

Our webserver and mail server are down for upgrades, and we’re switching over some aspects of the website. So expect some glitches for the next few days. We’ll be adding some new elements soon. 

Finally – and some of you will find this ironic – I spent several hours talking to folks about crowdfunding. I served as the ‘cautionary tale’. I used my own story as a scare-tactic for what can go wrong with a campaign (even when, on the surface, it looks like I did everything right with the campaign, and everything wrong with the execution afterward). 

​Take care, mjl