Group Starts Kickstarter Campaign to Lead to a Space Elevator

Money is just for an experiment so far, but $3 million feasibility study is eventual goal.

The LiftPort Group has launched a rather unusual Kickstarter project. They're looking for money for an experiment to serve as a stepping stone to their ultimate goal – building a space elevator on the Moon.

Well, that's the ultimate goal, anyway. For the immediate future, their goal is much more modest – they want to raise $8,000 to conduct an experiment where they're able to launch a robot on a tether 2km into the atmosphere – which would exceed the previous record, set by a previous LiftPort group, by about a quarter of a mile. So far, the Kickstarter has already exceeded their financial goal. As of this writing, the group has $19,606 raised, with 16 days left to go. Where the groups finances exceed $8,000, the group has "stretch goals" that include more telemetry sensors as well as the ability to go higher into the sky.