Merry Xmas!
Mood:  party time!
Now Playing: Jingle Bells.
Hell, it's the silly season again already. That time of year when everyone starts complaining about how commercialised Xmas has become. Can't believe it's been nearly a year since my last post. Had a rollercoaster of a time. Just purchased 100 acres of bushland a few hours west of Brisbane. Plan to build a few scaled Orion models there. Need to clear a few acres and put up some worksheds first. Will do some static tests once my amateur rocketry license arrives. Later on I'll drive out to the desert to try and launch a few suckers. Might get in touch with Tripoli. They are an Amateur Rocketry club well entrenched in Australia but having no base in Queensland just yet. Have to make sure a good set of video cameras get any successful flights from different angles. Will be good for promoting the concept and it shouldn't be too hard persuading one of the Tv networks to send a crew.

Just sent a letter to Bush's Space Panel. They want public input so I decided to give the just that.
Letter to Bush's Space Panel.
Won't hold my breath for a reply. NASA has the balls of a spider monkey. Their zero risk policy ensures they will never achieve anything of any lasting significance. They still think they are hot stuff for reaching the moon. Big bloody deal. For the money they spent on getting there we could have put hotels in orbit around Jupiter. Apollo killed the space age as far as I'm concerned. Everything they did was wrong. Even the reasons behind it were stupid. Every available dollar was redirected from other more promising programs and wasted on putting a US flag on the moon. Mankind my arse. That was no united nations flag. Not that I don't think the US deserved to put its own flag up there. I just think they were lying hypocritical sons of bitches. They only went there to beat the Russians and quickly lost interest once that objective was achieved. To our detriment. If that money had been spent on Orion then by now we would probably be building second generation starships. Nasa sucks.

Setting up shop!
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: Flash Dance.
Topic: Idea's.
I wish I could clone myself and get more work done. I'm setting up a new page for all the different merchandise that will eventually be available. I'm trying to arrange an Orion modelling kit which I believe would attract a few customers. The cafepress shop is up and running with various clothing and other small items.

I'm making up a list of things to pursue and intend to tackle it one thing at a time until I'm through the whole lot. I need to put some links into the website texts for a start. Just to make them a little more interesting.

As well as artwork I need stories. Alternate histories about Orion for publishing. I may not have graphic design skills but I can type so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into my first fictional piece. A news letter is one item I'm in two minds about but I am definately going to set up a news page. I own universedaily.com but I have a feeling the title will be misleading. It will be more like universe weekly. Orion news isn't coming in thick and fast, although several directions of research are being currently pursued. Eventually I might set up membership fee's for an Orion Society of some sort. Something supporters can join. Bumper stickers and posters ofcourse. I haven't even started on promotion yet.

I'd better get started!

Website Work.
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Kickstarting this baby.
Accomplished some website changes over the weekend. It's less than a week since I started this project and already it's starting to take shape. I have a shop at http://www.cafepress.com/projectorion where I might do up some T-shirts with Orion and the web domain. I'm just concerned over the pricing there. Looks to me like they've marked them up too high. Still, I like the idea walking advertisements who pay me for the privilege. Maybe there's a better service out there.



Thanks to everyone who has emailed me with supportive comments. I wasn't expecting so many letters this early on. Still have a lot of work to do. Must add more links into the page texts when I get a chance. All in all a rather successful week. A little work each day and the place will steadily improve.


Having trouble with the google ads. Have to change the pathways before they'll work on my site. It's on my list of things to do. Put some new images up yesterday as well. One step at a time. It's getting there.

Google ads.
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Bohemian Rhapsody.
Topic: Kickstarting this baby.
Have chosen Adsense from google and am awaiting approval. I've used this service before and it's one of the least invasive revenue generators. No popups or irrelevant ads. They should be more or less space or nuclear related. The advertiser,sponsor and readers all get a better deal that way. As soon as my first cheque arrives I'll post the funding status. My name is Wayne Smith by the way. I should put a link here somewhere to the website. http://www.projectorion.com
I first tried to start an Orion fund years ago and was a little overwhelmed by the impossible regulations involved. It seems to me that governments around the world are doing their very best to choke all creativity and entrepreneurial spirit out of the masses. They achieve this with jungles of red tape and legal fees only Bill Gates can afford to shelve out. I researched every loophole. Charities, non-profit organisations and even other countries where laws governing the solicition of funds might be more sane. It was just too difficult so I redirected my energies toward simply promoting the concept. Now I'm going back to the original plan. I'm sure that this could prove the best way to promote Orion anyway. A lot has happened since I first founded the Pro_Nuclear Space Movement. The movie 'Deep Impact' they used the orion propulsion system to reach the deadly asteroid threatening earth. That was the one without Bruce Willis. Freeman Dyson's son George has written a very concise and interesting novel about Project Orion called surprisingly enough 'PROJECT ORION', which instantly achieved more promotion of the concept than I was able to bring about in the preceding 5 years. I put copies of the book covers used on the front page of the website and it's available through most good book stores including Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc. In fact if you do a search on Project Orion the amazon site will probably pop up as number two on the list of websites given. My own website generally shows up at number 3 but I'm hoping to hijack the top spot shortly. I really should get a shopping page up and going. Not just for my own merchandise but everything relating to Orion. There are a number of good fictional novels out there and Scott Lowther used to make scale models of Orion. So much to do.

Beginnings.
Mood:  on fire
Topic: Kickstarting this baby.
The really big issue with this project is ofcourse money. We aren't raising funds for a community swimming pool here. Orion is an interstellar space vehicle. It's going to take a little more than a raffle and a weekend fete.

But hey, no point in being negative. We have to start somewhere. To be perfectly honest, I don't even know how much money is needed.

I do have this neat little Orion Cost Calculator courtesy of an old friend.

The Queen Elizabeth 2 cost £30 million to build back in 1969. More recently the world’s biggest cruise ship, which was only just completed, called the Queen Mary 2 is expected to be around £518m. That's about US$750m. This 344 metre-long ship will carry 2,800 passengers and measure 23 stories high. Rolls-Royce has already signed a deal to provide engines for the new super-liner.

Raising that sort of wealth seems impossible and it's best not to think about it too hard. What I can do is put up advertising here and direct the money earned towards the project. It's a start. Every click on these pages will then earn cash towards realising the dream and I'll post regular updates of the amount raised. Why do I hear laughter? Ok, yes, it's small change but as I said, it's a start. I have a few other ideas. Orion T-shirts with the web domain printed on them is one. If you can think of anything else let me know. If enough of a ball gets rolling on this we might be able to scrounge some free advertising from the media outlets. Aren't they always looking for bizarre tales? This certainly fits the bill. It's a long road ahead but we've taken the first step.

It's interesting to note that this is not the first starship fund in existance. A very serious effort conducted by the British Interplanetary Society has been running for decades. Money earned from magazine subscriptions is being directed towards the construction of Daedalus. A 1970's version of Orion.

Posted by stars2/projectorion at 8:10 PM EADT
Permalink | Share This Post