The latest from the KC Space Pirates

I received this email today from Brian Turner, captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates:

And the winner is “The Black Diamond”. That will be the name given to our new ship/trailer. The most suggested name was “Black Pearl”  followed by “Queen Ann’s revenge”. We also had other fun suggestions like “The Really Really Mean Minnow” and “Red Eye Roger”. It was all fun and we also collected good names for the climber. Additionally we named the laser beam director the “ARGH” for Automated Robotic Glow Hurler. Oddly, they want a name for the laser on safety forms and such and just calling it the TRUMPF Trudisk 8000 does not differentiate it from the other teams. I am curious to see it the officials can bring themselves to calling it that. Or if they just keep calling it the Space Pirates beam director.

The upside in the competition date getting delayed repeatedly is that all the testing that we said we would do we are actually getting around to. And that is a good thing as we keep finding and fixing numerous problems. In the winter we often got pinned inside by the cold and could not test. Now, it’s the rain. But I would rather be wet then cold and there is something naturally optimistic about the springtime.  But we still have gotten in enough testing to make me comfortable that we will be ready in time for the competition. At this point all of the long lead time items that we worried about getting done in time are no longer a problem. And we have gone through a few cycles of test, fail, fix. There are still items that could use improvement, but then, I think that is always the case.

I have tired of taking pictures and video that we can’t share with anyone yet. And I know that after the competition most of those pictures and video will be somewhat out of date. I will release some of it once we have a firm date for the competition.

The t-shirts are designed and available. I owe a few to some of you on this list, so now is good time to remind me. You can buy them directly from http://www.printfection.com/kcspacepirates

We have raised more funds to the point where even with the delays, we are not in danger of running completely dry before the competition.  The testing itself is eating up money and looks like it will be even worse before the competition. Looks like we can get time on the helicopter for something north of $3000 or $1 per second. With costs like that, you know you are playing with the big boys.

With spring coming to a close, we will also have to work in the heat of summer. Glad we got that A/C on the new trailer.

See you laser… I mean later.

Brian Turner
Captain
KC Space Pirates

Thanks for the update Brian.  I voted for the “The Really, Really Mean Minnow” and I’m glad to know that it was at least considered… ?

And, really and truly, there will be an announcement about the date of the Space Elevator Games coming out ‘Real Soon Now’.  No, really, truly, really, I mean it, really…