Can we really afford this?!?!
HejHej! My name is Jonas Samuelsson and since no projects are free there needs to be someone who looks over the economy of the project and that is I! (I also do some work in the mechanical division).
Looking over the cost of our project has been a real roller coaster! I remember sending in the first SED where our budget deficit was a little above 9000 Euro, and in that budget the price we estimated for the balloon was way WAY too low. However, since then we have come into contact with quite a few generous companies who happily sponsor our project as well as done a few design changes like replacing a pyrotechnical valve that could cost about 7000 Euro to a solenoid valve that cost about 300 Euro. It isn’t just cheaper it is much easier to work with.
Then there was the balloon. Our first estimated cost of the balloon was 2500 Euro back in January. Just a little time after we realised that the price of a balloon with our requirements may cost twice that.
So my job for quite some time was trying to find companies or organisations that could fund our project. Even though we had changed valve we were still in a pretty large deficit. As I was working on this, the team came across a way we could get a balloon and that was to team up with a Chinese Organisation called Academy of Opto-Electronics (AOE) where two students design, manufacture and test the balloon. We have also come into contact with companies that were willing to sponsor us with components as time went on. From a 9000 Euro money deficit it looks like we are soon in a surplus.
I would like to thank our funders and sponsors so far:
- Luleå University of technology
- The Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering
- Zarm
- Perovšek d. o. o.
- Academy of Opto-Electronics (AOE)
