>To heck with the lander...whats the deal with the XKE?

That is Russ's old vehicle that is going to get restored "one of these days". I think there were also some pictures from real early on that had one of my Ferrari's in the background, and our next big production video will probably have some footage of me making chips on my little lathe in the garage, four feet away from my F50...

>As Tom pointed out your site-journal is an unusual bit of candor. Usually such candor is either
>putting the cards on the table for other potential investors to see - and I know the company
>cannot yet be publicly held or have too many investors besides yourself funding it - because
>they would insist it be taken down ASAP - or after wooing other investors you might see keeping
>the nitty-gritty data private was better PR. ;-)

My motivations really aren't very business related, and I'm not looking for investors. I have picked goals that I believe we are capable of reaching with my personal funding, so investors would only get in the way. I write the updates as internal documentation, and to organize my thinking. I learned everything I know about rocketry in the last two years, largely as a result of internet resources, so I am happy to contribute back new resources for others. I also wind up learning something almost every week from someone commenting on various issues that I discuss in the updates. I care more about the absolute state of my knowledge, rather than the state relative to others, and I find that I learn most by being open, rather than trying to keep anything secret.

Everyone is working for free, because they are interested, not for any particular monetary motivation. However, I firmly believe that if you do something sufficiently Neat, and you don't spend too much money doing it, that you will wind up making money. I concentrate on the Neat, and let the business take care of itself. We have already had offers for contract work, but that would be off the critical path, so we haven't taken them. The first money we see will probably be the X-Prize. :-)

John Carmack
www.armadilloaerospace.com