It has been a crazy and rocky past week with the testing and rebuild failures of my latest acquired Edwards E2M18 vacuum pump. Without this pump, and really no money for a new pump or professional rebuild, I didn’t think I would be able to continue propulsion testing again for a long time. In this incredibly short time however, the community has stepped up to help out. Bruce Perens offered to help set up and organize a GoFundMe to crowdfund for a new pump!
The GoFundMe is live now! I am deeply appreciative and indebted to Bruce Perens who put time into setting this up, and everyone else in the community helping pushing this effort forward despite the technical challenges and setbacks. The pump will allow me to continue testing open source EP reliably for a long time to come. This goes beyond just myself – AIS is truly a community driven effort, and I wouldn’t be here without everyone’s support. You can find a link to the campaign below: