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ISEE-3

NASA Lists ISEE-3 Reboot as 2nd Largest Crowdfunded Space Effort

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
September 22, 2014
Filed under , ,

Emerging Space: The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight, PDF, NASA Office of the Chief Technologist
“Crowdfunding offers space organizations avenues for fundraising outside traditional institutional methods. Sites like Kickstarter.com, Rockethub.com, and Indiegogo.com allow space companies to tap the financial resources of private citizens interested in space exploration. In addition to providing crucial funds for the companies, crowd funding allows citizens to directly engage in space exploration by funding the projects that interest them. The number of these projects continues to grow. Table 4 provides a few prominent examples known at the time of printing. … ISEE-3, a NASA probe launched in 1978, became the first spacecraft in deep space to be operated by a private-sector organization thanks in part to a crowd funding campaign.”
Keith’s note: When you add ISEE-3 Reboot Project ($160K) and Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project ($62K) together (both conducted by the same team) over $222,000 has been raised via crowdfunding. Click on image to enlarge.
Meanwhile, since its inception several years ago, CASIS has raised only $14,550 in cash. We often raised that much in a day or two.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

11 responses to “NASA Lists ISEE-3 Reboot as 2nd Largest Crowdfunded Space Effort”

  1. Rich_Palermo says:
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    That’s way more than CASIS has raised. And if you consider the ratio of funds raised to fundraising cost, it looks even better for ISEE-3 and LOIRP: $220K/$0 vs. $14K/(3 x CASIS annual budget). That’s like infinity vs. zero from an ROI perspective…

  2. Tim Blaxland says:
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    I was surprised that their citizen science projects had so few participants. Citizen Science Alliance seems to have much better engagement with their Zooniverse projects but I’m not sure why.

    • Reader says:
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      You don’t have to pay any money to participate in Zooniverse projects

    • Reader says:
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      Zooiniverse doesn’t require any payment to participate.

    • kcowing says:
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      The NASA source cited clearly refers to crowd funding.

      • Tim Blaxland says:
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        Yes, but it refers to lots of other things too. But I need to offer my apologies failing to articulate the point I was trying to make.

        My observation is that successful crowd funding requires successful public engagement. So does successful citizen science projects. Based on the evidence, that is something that you guys clearly do better than NASA.

  3. Vladislaw says:
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    Keith, has anyone from CASIS ever contacted you or commented about why they have such trouble? Ask for recommendations, help et cetera?

    • kcowing says:
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      CASIS refuses to respond to all of my inquiries – and has never contacted me on this topic.

      • Vladislaw says:
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        What makes great leadership is if they don’t know the answer they have the ability to find the people that do. They do not have great leadership, to much ego.

      • Vladislaw says:
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        I did a search on CASIS for crowdfunding … no entries for crowdfunding.
        Keith, you should come up with some idea… run it through CASIS then crowdfunding and report on the entire process, start to finish… grins

  4. Doug Mohney says:
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    “Seeking to expand intergalactic fleet. Working scientific spacecraft sought, preferably in known operational condition at end of program lifecycle, but will take whatever we can get. Operational manuals and documentation (in English) a plus, along with known fuel reserves. Will consider Department of Defense hardware if security clearances not required. Contact kcowling@STEM-salvage.com

    🙂 🙂 🙂

    Seriously, NASA must have a few more birds they’ll need to unload to keep the cash flowing to Webb and SLS. You should identify a couple, then go crowdsource some cash. Maybe build a couple of regional operational centers with STEM matching money and eager student labor.