Suppose you could resurrect that $17 million in funding you had for Rotary Rocket, and you used that money to purchase GICs at 5% annual interest rate. On average that would give you 2.9% above and beyond inflation, but lets say 2% just to be safe. Two percent of the principle is $340,000 interest earned annually. Now let's talk expenses:
$340,000 annual budget
- $120,000 salaries (4 people @ $30,000 per year)
- $24,000 rent (modest commercial outlet in an industrial plaza for $2000 per month)
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$ 196,000 remaining ($16,333 per month)
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Assuming no one gets greedy with the salaries there's a lot of money left over to finance machines, welding & turning equipment, not to mention materials. Still, a sizable rocket engine costs a lot more than that, but if you could demonstrate homemade rocket technology you could gather more funding, increase the principle. As long as you never touch the principle your business is sure to be around for a long time, and the name will eventually become famous.
So I'm wondering how does one go about raising that initial $17 million in private funding? I'm guessing you've got to be an extremely successful businessman in the first place, right? In which case you probably wouldn't be content with such a small setup, and would blow the whole $17 million in the first 7-8 years.
Space/Science » in reply to Re: Old news.
Re: Budget Proposal