On July 20th 2012, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a director named Paul Hildebrandt of Chico, California launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his new documentary, Fight For Space: Exploring the Future of Human Spaceflight. If you are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it is a method of crowdsourcing that allows for worthy projects to be funded by the public – anyone can contribute if they like what they see. Kickstarter is also famous for including a tiered system for rewarding those who donate to help a project. Paul Hildebrandt wanted to see if he could get the $65,000 needed to finish his documentary, which will chronicle the state of America’s manned space program and where that program is going. The Kickstarter campaign was very successful right from the start. In less than two weeks, the funding needed to finish the film was acquired. In light of that success, Director Hildebrandt decided to extend the goals of the Kickstarter campaign to include new features, some of which will be related to outreach. According to the latest update on the Kickstarter page, a new goal of $100,000 will go to the following:

• Theatrical Release
• Additional Distribution Methods
• Higher Resolution Cameras
• More Locations
• More Interviews
• Improved Design Art for the Rewards
• Greater Level of Research
• Larger Crew, Improved Cinematography
• Larger Orchestra for our Musical Score

Paul Hildebrandt goes on to say:

“If we can reach $100,000: We can work towards bringing this film to the masses in a theatrical release and more broadcast networks. A higher funding level also means that we will be shoot this film on better cameras, bring in additional and talented artists, designers, cinematographers, photographers, and researchers.”

As of right now, Fight For Space has 2,311 backers pledging $86,171. There are only 7 days to go. Can you help? If you haven’t donated anything yet, and would like to see this documentary reach as wide an audience as possible, then throw in $5. The minimum donation in order to receive something in return is $10, which will get you a digital download of the film and a “Thank You” credit in the film. If you have already donated, or are interested nonetheless, then please pass on this information to others. If you can share it with two other people on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Tumblr (or anywhere else), then the message will get out. 7 days is not a long time on Kickstarter. Penny4NASA is very excited about this documentary. While our goal as an organization is specifically related to NASA funding (which is stated here), we believe manned spaceflight is crucial to moving humanity forward. The Fight For Space documentary will go a long, long way to reaching the public at large and educating them on the state of America’s manned space program, why it is there, and what can be done about it. You can get all the information you need at the Kickstarter page for the Fight For Space Documentary. You can also follow the conversation under the #FightForSpace hashtag on Twitter and Google+. Let’s get this documentary funded, shall we?