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Vulcan, the "Star Trek Capital of Canada" has turned to Indiegogo in a bid to raise an ambitious $2billion so that they can construct a real life working version of the USS Enterprise. You can certainly be excused for having never heard of Vulcan as it is a tiny Canadian town that has a population of just 1,836. That said the self-proclaimed spiritual centre of the Star Trek universe has attracted various Star Trek actors, such as Leonard Nimoy, to its annual celebration called Spock Days.
A donation of just $10 is described as effectively a contribution to the future of humankind whilst for a slightly bigger donation of $1,000,000,000 you can have the spaceport named in your honour. This donation amount is targeted at Messer’s Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Elon Musk, sadly they have yet to pledge!
It’s not all doom and gloom though as so far 92 people have backed the project and have raised $2,727. However, with only 33 days to go this original fixed-funding project looks destined to finish…yes you guessed it…unfunded - meaning the 92 people to have backed the project will get their money back.
If you genuinely believed that this was a realistic project then I am the bearer of bad news. As is becoming more and more apparent people are turning to Crowdfunding as a cheap, quick and easy marketing tool. The Vulcan tourism board state on their website that "The Indiegogo campaign currently running to help Vulcan build the U.S.S Enterprise is a marketing campaign to advertise the Canadian Badlands region of Alberta and feature Vulcan."
It has to be without a doubt one of the strangest Crowdfunding projects to date!