True point if it costs anything its probably not worth doing. If they do it for little or no cost it could be.

Hi Lee. Personally, I think a running total is a good idea because it will appeal to people like me - people obsessed with reaching a numerical target, constantly stressing about it and causing self induced minor heart attacks every so often! RE: Kickstarter!

Well I assume there will be some kind of monthly progress report available, including Money raised, Money spent and overall project/milestone completion, perhaps the LM1 board could share this Dashboard on the LM1 site?

I think Fawkes' post raises a number of interesting issues. I don't think the costs would be great as the LM1 team would have an idea how the project is doing at any given time, and updating the site every month wouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. Some thoughts come to mind:

I think the principle of transparency is especially important as this project has a community at its centre. I, like many of you, would like to know how the project is doing at any given point, and for supporters a straight forward rolling presentation of information would seem on the face of it to be a great idea, however there will be times when support for the project ebbs rather than flows.

If a live(ish) temperature gage on the "health" of Lunar Mission One is shown, some may become disheartened or negative about the project's chances of success when times are little lean. Support may wane at the very point we want it to grow. The danger therefore in presenting flat-lining or negative performance is that fewer people would be inspired to jump on board. People always want to be associated with success rather than risk. There are of course always two sides to every scenario and supporters might be inclined to give more when things aren't going so well, however I suspect the potential downside is why organizations don't usually advertise their current trends.

So, the challenge is how the project fulfils the need for transparency to its community, and at the same time, safeguards itself from the potential runaway affect of stagnant or negative growth. It seems to me that an annual statement would be a little too infrequent as it's important the community feels in the loop.

For what it's worth, my personal view is that the project makes its progress known in a bi-annual project statement to LM1 Club Members as any potentially negative news can be better managed along with the release of new initiatives and information about what is going well.

What Mike said
An update every 6 months I think would be fine...just watch the progress 'spike' in and around Christmas time (possibly even Easter) but watch it level out in and around winter & summer time.

I'm sure Lunar Missions did their numbers before the Kickstarter goal was achieved and I can only trust in them now.

Whilst the Internet is huge now (compared to say 10-15 years ago) I still wonder if LM-1 will get lost among all the other projects, fads etc out there?
I would still put my hope in acquiring a large percentage of funding through a Tv Campaign around Christmas (sorry to go on about this...I'm sounding a bit like HAL from 2001 before he lost it but I do feel it makes sense?)

A more educational way of presenting progress would be to see each stage of development being fulfilled, in chronological order, as cash rolls in... e.g rocket procurement = £x, see a silhouette of the rocket fill. Next item? Satellite development =£y etc.

I'd love to understand what needs to be done, and in what order, in addition to how much it all costs... All unfolding as the weeks go by.