Glamping on Mars; Behind the scenes with Spaced Ventures, a crowdfunding platform for space companies

There’s just something about space. Maybe it’s the intrigue of adventure into the unknown, the beauty, or the unlimited opportunities. For Aaron Burnett, the mastermind behind Spaced Ventures, it’s the possibility of glamping on Mars. We were lucky enough to score some of Aaron’s time to dive into his motivation behind creating the space centered crowdfunding portal. You can see for yourself where the conversation ventured to;

Crowdfunding is often associated with breweries, local businesses, or consumer product focused businesses, not quantum physics professors raising money for rockets.

But rocket and satellite building projects are being brought to the public's attention by Spaced Ventures, a crowdfunding platform designed for space companies.

Aside from his dream to glamp on Mars in his lifetime, Aaron Burnett, the founder and CEO of Spaced Ventures, explains one of the motives behind creating the platform was to help the public understand how close we are to the success of out-of-this-world (pun intended) space projects.

“We're here; we're at the inflection point. It's far more tangible than people think. Are we going to be on Mars in five years? No, not in any kind of substantial way. But, going to the moon with commerce, moving to Mars and things like that, they're not 100 years away, they're 20 or 30 years...”

Projects ranging from world class hurricane tracking systems to non-rocket space launches get many folks’ minds racing about what is accomplishable in space innovation within their lifetime and how they can contribute.

Multiple startups on the platform, including the creation of fusion engines (yes, a real company), create an appealing investment opportunity for individuals seeking something unique.

“And from a risk management perspective, we work with companies like you to help with protection. Because you can do all the due diligence in the world, but maybe investors have a change of heart, and insurance will protect founders.”

Because of Aaron's personal desire and admirable vision to glamp on Mars, Spaced Ventures is currently funding the next generation of space innovation and bringing the ability to get involved in shaping it right to people's fingertips. And we’re here to support that all day long.

BELOW YOU CAN FIND THE FULL CONVERSATION BETWEEN DAVID CARPENTIER, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF ASSURELY, AND AARON BURNETT, FOUNDER AND CEO OF SPACED VENTURES, AS THEY DISCUSS THE CAPTIVATING CHANGES THAT ARE HAPPENING IN SPACE, HOW NEW TECHNOLOGIES UNLOCK AN INTRIGUING FUTURE, AND OF COURSE, WHY GLAMPING ON MARS IS AARON’S GOAL.

Spaced Ventures. You are in a fascinating space (excuse the pun) and there is a lot that we could talk about today. But I want to start with something super simple. How do you define the types of companies and projects you work with?

When I talk about space as a “space”, it's a little bit confusing. Because when you think about space, you think about people launching rockets, or SpaceX and things like that. And people tend to think of it as an industry, or a sub-industry or sector or something. But space, at the end of the day, it’s a place. And in our scenario, it's just a place where we can conduct business. What we're doing is actually interacting with companies with some kind of deep technology, say anything from quantum to robotics to advanced manufacturing, operating, generally speaking, outside of the Karman Line but that's not the exclusive definition. So when you get down to it, it's hard to define “what is space” when you talk about what is a “space venture.”

GOT IT. SO CAN YOU GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE OF A PROJECT THAT WOULD BE ON THE EDGE OF THAT, WHERE YOU’D MAYBE SAY NO TO? WHAT WOULD FALL OUTSIDE OF THE CRITERIA FOR YOU?

Something that falls outside for us would be things that are quite easy to do without getting hard tech involved. So a good example, a mom-and-pop shop, ice cream store etc. is not great for us. But if you're talking about large companies that are building rockets or satellites or something like that, it's great for us.

There’s no denying that there is an intense fascination with your client base. For many, it's intimidating. Are there any trends or is there anything in the industry, exciting projects, etc. that will resonate and impact the lives of folks who may believe understanding space is unattainable or reserved for a certain type of person?

This goes back to what we talked about with space and thinking of it as an industry, and it helps to frame your mind appropriately. I find a comparison to the internet works quite well. Back in the 70s, 80s, 90s, the internet was an industry, it was a very specific thing. But now everyone uses the internet and it’s a place, but there's still technically an “internet industry”. To frame it, think, who is JP Morgan? Technically they’re a finance company, or are they an internet company because they have a bank online and most people bank online nowadays? So that's where it’s hard to draw a line. 

Similar things are happening in space, where you have companies that are doing business in space. So whether that's SpaceX launching stuff into space, or the people that are in those SpaceX rockets. Or any GPS, right? Anyway, all of these things are really integrated back into Earth industries. And you know, space is just a medium for that. 

What I don't think most people are really prepared for in the industry is that it’s evolving in space for space. And so what you're seeing now is things like gas stations in space. Yes, they were built on earth, and were paid for on earth, from people on Earth, but they are going to be in orbit; they are in orbit now. And more of them will be in orbit soon, and they will be selling gas to other satellites that interact. It's designed to keep that all in orbit. And there are large government programs designed to create this new innovation, it's called OSAM, or On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing. It's a whole market that's designed for things to stay in orbit, and not interact with anything on earth other than the money.

Give us a peek into the crystal ball. What is going to happen in the next 5 years? Anything so novel that it would be tough for most folks to fathom? Note; this is not investment advice.

Probably in the next five years, you see a far more robust OSAM market, which stands for On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing. There have already been transactions in the 10s of millions of dollars for sales of future gas and stuff in space. Things like that are already happening. And like I said, I think the Space Force and others have put money into making this happen further. NASA spent, I think, 300 or 500 million to get three new private space stations to take over the place of the ISS. And so those are examples of private places to be in orbit, like a space hotel, if you will, or a space research lab, where they now have needs between the three of them. So, over the next five years, those will all continue to evolve, and then all the services around them will keep evolving. But personally, I get excited about 5, 10, 20 years down the line. When what I just spoke about becomes more and more normal, it will become just a platform for what's next.

What are you seeing now that’s not getting the attention it deserves in your industry?

You know, it’s a variety of things. I think the industry itself gets attention because it's interesting and kind of cool, but it doesn't get the attention that it's ‘here’. We're at an inflection point. On our platform right now we have a Fusion Drive. That's a real thing done by some of the most respected fusion scientists in the nation. This is a company working on real fusion that is designed for propulsion in space.

So, I think that's the biggest thing that most people don't realize. We're here; we're at the inflection point. It's far more tangible than people think. Are we going to be on Mars in five years? No, not in any kind of substantial way. But, going to the moon with commerce, moving to Mars, and things like that, they're not 100 years away; they're 20, 30 years away, in my opinion.

Playing on the no investment advice and this is a self-serving question. How does risk management play into your platform? Why is it important?

We do quite a bit of due diligence upfront on our deals. The thing with space is that it's inspiring, which is a great thing, but it also tends to attract people who want to take advantage of inspiring things and sell snake oil. So you do have to have a little bit of skepticism. Therefore, we have 25, and growing every week, people on our Investment Advisory Committee (IAC) who are helping us (with hundreds of years of experience combined in aerospace, including some of the people that were behind Starlink for Elon). They help us approach projects with skepticism. Prior to joining our platform, they help kick the tires and make sure they’re not going to fall off. 

From a risk management perspective, we work with companies like you to help with protection. Because you can do all the due diligence in the world, but maybe investors have a change of heart, and insurance will protect founders. It's good to have insurance, because once the more sophisticated board members start to ask companies questions, they ask things like, do you have insurance?

Ok, last question; what about connecting the public with space companies gets you the most excited?

You know, the reason I'm doing this is because I want to go to Mars in my lifetime. And when I go to Mars, I want to be in a four-star hotel or something. I'm not a roughing-it sort of guy. I like the idea of exploring, but I'm gonna glamp.

So if that's the case, we need a lot more innovation. So the thing that excites me about getting the public involved is that we need a mass appreciation of just how close we are, and how giving just a little bit of money ramps up innovation more than we think. For me, it's a feedback loop. We get some people invested, even with small amounts of money, and over time we get millions of people involved. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy that there will be glamping on Mars. It will happen. That's what gets me excited about bringing the public into the future of space.