I know we have been mostly quiet for a long time but as they say space is not easy and although I still think its possible to succeed at the N-Prize within the generous rules laid out by Paul I think the cost of doing so will far exceed the prize money for all the development costs ground based support insurance etc etc. We looked into sponsorship and had no luck there. But as we thought and still do that we had a new way of getting into space cheaply we decided to continued working on the ideas we had with the aim of creating a patent that we could use to raise funds to develop a working prototype. As of this week we are now patent pending with a 100+ page patent application that has been worked on and refined over a number of years. So if things go well you will hopefully be hearing more about us over the coming months and year. And once we have achieved orbit on a slightly larger scale than the N-Prize needs we hope to refine the technology to a level where we can win the prize if nobody else has done so, though I suspect this will take 2 or 3 years from now providing we can raise the necessary start-up funds. In the mean time I will cheer on anybody else who is also still trying and makes an attempt at it, space is big enough for all of us.

Congratulations to Potent Voyager on this "giant leap" forward (to borrow a phrase)! Compiling a complex patent application is one of the most difficult challenges in all legal writing; far more difficult than contracts, deeds, wills, acts of legislation or even judicial opinions. The fact that you devoted so much time and effort to this task is a clear sign that the members of Potent Voyager are wholeheartedly dedicated to turning ideas into hardware. Do you know when the application will be published?

Jay

Thanks Jay for the congrats it has taken a long time and a lot of work just to get to the filing stage. Out patent attorney says it should be officially published by the patent office in about 18 months time. He also also says that we should be careful about disclosure before that without an NDA but its something we might have to do to get the funds needed to build a working prototype. The next few months are going to be very interesting but if we can't get a government grant or angel investor we will go down the crowdfunding route which will mean disclosing a lot of our idea publicly to persuade people that our idea is based on real known science and does have the potential to greatly decrease the price of accessing space doing so in an environmentally friendly way.

Always listen to your attorney! Governmental grant applications for funding research and development routinely allow proprietary information to be withheld from publication and experienced trustworthy investors will respect the need for a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as well. Don't be shy about insisting on one. NDAs are standard business practice in all areas of technological innovation. Any prospective investor who refuses to agree to an NDA should be scratched off your list.

Even if you must use crowdfunding, you can be completely frank with potential contributors to the campaign about the temporary need to withhold proprietary details. Keep in mind that the moment your application is published you will be free to discuss your innovations in complete detail with anyone without risk of losing your patent rights. Such a disclaimer might even serve as a "teaser" for your campaign contributors. Your attorney can help you determine what can be disclosed publicly and what must be kept secret until then.

Jay

You are not wrong about listening to our attorney its been a long hard frustrating slog at some times but I think the final product has been greatly improved by him asking us the right hard questions enabling us together to refine the fine details of the application.

Any updates on the patent? Sounds exciting.

Have you chosen a crowd funding platform yet? I'll be watching for it!

Jay