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Survive in the Southwest

Survive in the Southwest

Luxury missile silo for sale with its own airstrip and private hangar

Much of the Southwest is desert, a climate many people believe is not ideal for survival. However, this isn’t true if you’re educated and prepared. All throughout human history we have adapted to survive in the desert by becoming a part of its ecosystem. In the desert, you will find sources of food, water, and even medicinal plants all around you, if you know where to look.

 

Bruce Francisco is an Atlas F Missile Base specialist, and he’s got his own custom luxury silo to prove it. On his website, Francisco has described his construction team as the “builders of the most unique secure real estate in the world.” Although he is currently occupying his custom Upstate New York silo, he also owns the missile silo site in the Southwest that he is ready to sell.

Francisco originally specialized in fix and flips, but then he had the opportunity to renovate the abandoned silo. After realizing he could land his plane on the old military road that sits on the property, Francisco originally intended to build his house on the property, having no idea what he’d do with the missile silo below. Then he decided, “Let’s do something crazy with this thing. Let’s build a cool home.” So he built a hangar and a private air strip, then decided to tackle the silo.

 

Details of the Southwest Property

This unique property is currently available in an undisclosed location, which shows that the builder takes security seriously.  The price of this Atlas F Missile Base is not specified, but the owner/builder, Bruce Francisco, can customize the site to your needs, for a price.

 

To build a structure on the surface would be $375K to $800K. To transform the property into a low-cost carrier airline site will run you $450K to $1M. The cost to transform the missile silo tube into an underground paradise that can hold up to 70 people for five years? $4M to $20M.

 

This property sits on 18 acres of land that, while remote, is also just a 15 minute drive from the city and Home Depot. One major benefit of the Southwest location is the silo tube is clean and dry. Most of these tubes have been breached by water at some point, with accompanying damage, making this a huge plus for this particular property.

 

Some of the other features of this Southwest Atlas F Missile Base include:

  • A clean, painted LCC
  • Water rights that have been grandfathered back to 1920
  • A two-mile paved easement that is wide enough to become a runway for your private jet
  • Extremely low taxes

 

About Atlas-F Sites

Atlas-F Series Missile Base sites were built during the Cold War, and they were designed to take a direct nuclear hit, making them ideal for survivalists. These sites were deliberately constructed far from heavily populated areas so when the Russians attacked, the bombs would not be aimed at big cities that would have high casualty rates. This is exactly where you’d want to be after the SHTF.

 

These properties have an above-ground launch control center that features 2,300-square-feet of finished space. This means there is plenty of room in this space alone for a typical open floor plan home with a full kitchen, two master suites, and a spacious private bathroom. However, with that much space, you could easily customize the property into any configuration that works for your situation.

 

Under the ground, you will find a silo tube that is an incredible 52 feet across and 185 feet deep, with seven levels. All of this sits behind 2,000 lb. glass doors that can be opened via a secure keypad entrance. There are also high-circulation vent tubes that lead to the outside.

The property can be powered by generators and solar power, and it is surrounded by three-foot-thick epoxy resin that is reinforced with concrete and steel mesh. It also comes with two wells, 200 amp electrical, phone and satellite capabilities, and an 1,800-gallon septic tank.

 

This missile silo has a constant climate of approximately 58 degrees, and it can be converted into condos or space for hydroponic gardening. As you can see, this property has incredible potential. Francisco and his team are able to install video surveillance equipment that will give you a full 360 degree view of the surface.

 

On the property’s website, Francisco has specified that he is only interested in corresponding with those who are serious about the property. If you are a serious potential buyer with interest in a luxurious Southwest silo home, reach out to him at [email protected].

 

 

Learn more about the edible plants that can be found in the Southwest.

 

Take a peek inside Bruce Francisco’s Upstate New York luxury silo home.

 

 

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Would You Trust eBay With Your Life?

Would You Trust eBay With Your Life?

For $595,000, You Can Buy a Survival Shelter Online

If you want to buy an underground communications bunker in western Kansas to use as your SHTF shelter, you’ll need to act quickly because there won’t be anymore eBay after the grid goes down.

This Scott City, Kansas bunker offers an expansive floor plan, and with so much space it would be easy to develop it into a luxury property. If you’re looking for a ready-made survival shelter with a ton of potential, this is it. If, that is, this is a real offer. The seller, officelistings, only joined eBay this past June, and their other listings are for low-priced office furniture. They are selling due to relocation and health reasons.

 

The seller is asking $595,000 or best offer, and in the listing he mentions, “Thought we had this sold, fell through so I am relisting my site again…” The seller mentions the site is a “must-see,” however, they will not send any plans or other detailed information until after they have vetted any potential buyers due to security reasons. This is a smart move, because making this information public will lower the site’s overall value.

 

Keep reading to learn more about survival in Kansas to determine if this may be the right shelter for your needs.

 

Kansas Survival Statistics

Here at Rob Raskin’s Millionaire Survivalist, we have written about the underground luxury survival condo project in Kansas in the past. The state is a popular destination for survivalists due to its current laws and low population density. It is legal to homeschool in Kansas, and the state doesn’t have the draconian gun laws other states are currently imposing.

 

SurvivalBlog.com has placed Kansas 12th on their list of western states with the greatest retreat potential, and Boston’s Gun Bible has placed the state 13th for gun law rankings. Combine this with being the state with the 10th longest growing season, and it’s easy to see why so many preppers would choose Kansas for their survival destination.

 

The state of Kansas has a population of 2.6 million, with a population density of 31.7 per square mile. Compared to someplace like California, which has a population of 39,776,830, and a population density of 255 per square mile, and you can see that you’ll have a lot less competition for resources.

 

Here are a few of the drawbacks of sheltering in Kansas, according to SurvivalBlog.com.

  • There is little crop diversity
  • The state is prone to tornados
  • There are few sources of firewood
  • The flat terrain may make it difficult to defend yourself

 

James Wesley, Rawles, the founder and senior editor of SurvivalBlog, gave Kansas an overall Combined Retreat Potential Ranking of 12 of 19.

 

About the Kansas Facility

This “VIP bomb shelter” is zoned commercially, but it is possible to have it rezoned as residential or agricultural. After TEOTWAWKI, zoning laws won’t matter anymore, but they could affect how you choose to use the shelter now.

 

This site also comes with the mineral rights to the property, but that’s just the beginning of the benefits.

 

The History of the Shelter

This underground bunker was originally constructed in the 1960s at a cost that was equal to $4 million today. It was built as a base of operations for a power-feed station on a hardened transcontinental coaxial-cable route. This route extends from Airmont, New York to Mojave, California. Part of the facility has been developed into a data storage center, and part of it was developed into a VIP residential area for the technicians who worked at the site.

 

The property comes with a keypad and keycard access that will allow you to access the cameras installed around the perimeter and throughout the facility. These cameras can be remotely operated, so you can monitor the property even when you’re off-site.

 

The Shelter’s Features

The shelter sits upon approximately ten acres of land, and the underground portion of the space has approximately 8,000-square-feet of living space, with 3,800-square-feet of steel mezzanine that can be used as a second floor. Here’s what else it offers:

  • Functional blast doors
  • Walls and ceilings made of 18” – 24” reinforced military grade concrete and steel for EMP protection
  • A 177’ tower that can potentially be used to generate income
  • 5’ ceilings
  • A one-ton hoist
  • Four to six feet of earth over the top to protect from a nuclear blast
  • Three-phase power that is currently on 120/208 but can be upgraded to 480
  • A back-up generator that is currently disconnected
  • A 2,000-gallon diesel fuel tank
  • A 10,000-gallon stainless steel water storage tank
  • A new well
  • A functional bathroom
  • Clean floors
  • Two sewage ejector pumps that feed into a double reduction sewage lagoon system

 

The listing states the owner may consider owner financing for buyers who have a significant down payment. Is this bunker a legitimate offer? We’re going to keep following the listing to see if it sells. We’ll do a follow-up if and when it finds a buyer. You can see pictures of the shelter and follow the listing here:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/UNDERGROUND-BUNKER-COMMUNICATION-TOWER-DATA-CENTER-POTENTIAL/223567905499?hash=item340daf82db:g:cKEAAOSwhwpdFRZT

 

 

Take a look inside another underground Kansas shelter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALbqZ9rQQ_E

 

If you want to survive in this abandoned nuclear missile silo in Kansas, it’ll cost you $2M.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI2ZDIP0ZWo

 

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Indiana Bunker You Can Buy Right Now

If you’ve ever wanted to own your own missile base, this is your chance.

 

This is the first in a series of articles featuring bunkers that are available for sale in the US and around the word right now. Join us at Rob Raskin’s Millionaire Survivalist next week to learn about more properties that are currently listed. In this week’s installment: an Indiana missile base.

 

Indiana sits on the New Madrid Fault Line, and it’s one of the most densely populated states, so it’s not ideal for survival. However, if you’re from the Hoosier State and you’re determined to remain a Hoosier supporter no matter what, you’re in luck because an underground missile silo has hit the market.

 

This particular base was designed to be large enough to contain a 41-foot Nike missile that would rise via a hydraulic elevator, and the fallout shelter on the site is large enough for the 100 soldiers who were once stationed there, along with a 60-day supply of food, water, and other supplies. The site was active until March 1970, when it was transferred to a private owner, who bought the launching area in 1979. This owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, is now ready to move on from the property after his wife’s passing.

 

Imagine how much living space that could mean for you after TEOTWAWKI.

 

About Project Nike and the Base

Project Nike was first proposed in May 1945, and it was named after Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. The goal of the project was to develop an anti-aircraft missile system. This is where many rocket technologies and systems were originally developed. A number of these were also named after the goddess, including the Nike Smoke rocket and the Nike Hercules missile.

 

Dillsboro’s Nike Missile Base # CD-63 was originally constructed in 1958, during the Cold War era. The base was one of three hundred that were built around the country’s major industrial and urban areas in 29 states, which were known as “Rings of Fire.” These were meant to protect these areas from the Soviets.

 

How powerful were the Nike Hercules missiles? So powerful they could be fired up to 150,000 feet. They were armed with nuclear warheads and designed to intercept enemy bombers that were 75 miles away. This was critical at the time because our country’s defense strategists believed the Soviets would—and could—send their bombers to the U.S.

 

In interesting bit of trivia about the base: on November 14, 1960, local newspapers reported that radars picked up a UFO in the skies above the base, an allegation a Nike executive officer later denied.

 

If you’re ready to take your chances with population density, a fault line, and a possible alien invasion, this may be your future dream home.

 

Property Details

Nike Missile Base # CD-63 is located at 8854 State Route 262, Dillsboro, IN 47018. The property features 10 buildings and three missile silos, and it sits on 14.58 acres. Remember, these buildings were originally designed for military use, so they were built to last, using high-strength concrete that was considered at that time to be the top-of-the-line.

 

The house was converted in 1979, and there are still many elements of the seventies present, including gold swirl mirror tiles on the walls that surround the groovy hot tub and the vintage Corvette that sits near the swimming pool.

 

The fully-functional underground home also contains:

  • A 23’ x 14’ indoor swimming pool
  • An elevator
  • A sump pump
  • A sauna
  • Two bedrooms
  • A hot tub
  • A 14’ x 19’ aquarium, which is attached to the pool
  • Three horse stalls
  • 32’ x 40’ horse stables
  • A tack room
  • Hay storage
  • A full bathroom
  • An eight-foot barbed wire fence
  • An above-ground auto shop
  • Many other features!

 

There are also two other missile silos on the property that are ready to be converted into living spaces. If you love a challenge, this fixer-upper will be the challenge of a lifetime—one that could end up being longer because of it after the SHTF.

 

The property is being represented by Jay Knowles of Keller Williams. Rob Raskin’s Millionaire Survivalist reached out to Mr. Knowles for more information about the property, but as of press time he has still not responded. In an article in the Indy Star, Mr. Knowles said he has a couple of buyers who have already shown interest.

 

If you want to take a look at this property, you’d better act fast!

 

This isn’t the only missile silo currently for sale in Indiana, but it is currently the best deal. Don’t forget to check back next week to learn about more available post-apocalypse properties in the US.

 

 

Take a look inside a Nike Missile Base that sold for $227K in 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbOmDQoYUbk

 

Explore abandoned Nike Missile Bases across America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgO64mRFVpY

 

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Your Guide to Buying a Jetpack

Your Guide to Buying a Jetpack

Ready to get that jetpack? Here’s where you’ll find them for sale.

 

 

It’s expected that once the jetpack becomes widely available, the first customers lining up to buy them will be the government. Aside from the obvious potential uses the military would have for this technology, first responders and other emergency personnel will find them incredibly useful as well. With jetpack technology, you can reach inaccessible areas quickly, whether it’s the bottom of a canyon or the top of a building.

 

Although the jetpack isn’t widely available, if you have the funds you can get one of your own now. If you’ve dreamed of being able to fly solo, this is your chance to do it.

 

This week on Rob Raskin’s Millionaire Survivalist we’ll be taking a look at some more realistic jetpack designs. This is the second of two parts in our jetpack series, and in this installment we’ll show you where you can get a jetpack of your own and how much it’ll set you back.

 

Where to Get a Jetpack

Wondering where to get your own personal jetpack? Here’s everything you’ll need to know to get started. It may not be easy to find jetpacks that are readily available, but once you’re midflight you’ll understand why the effort was worth it.

 

Lamborghini Aventador $440,000

The Lamborghini Aventador is a jetpack suit created by Gravity Industries, and it’s the top-of-the-line jetpack currently available on the market. If you want the best of the best, this is the model for you.

 

Features

The Aventador can fly at 32 MPH and altitudes of up to 12,000 feet, thanks to its five gas turbine engines. This suit is comprised of a carbon fiber exoskeleton. It is assembled of 3D-printed parts, weighs 60 pounds and has a flying time of up to four minutes. It is rumored that Lamborghini is in development on an updated model that can stay in flight for up to nine minutes.

 

Although the price tag is hefty, Lamborghini throws in mandatory flight training for no extra charge.

 

Where to Buy

You can get the Lamborghini Aventador jetpack from UK department store Selfridges for less than a half-million.

 

Jetpack Aviation’s Speeder $380,000

While not traditionally a jetpack in the sense that we imagine them, the Speeder is a flying motorcycle that is more in-line with what the future of personal flight will really look like.

 

Features

This is the most fun you’ll ever have riding a motorcycle, because you can take the Speeder to the skies for up to 20 minutes at a time, at speeds of up to 150 MPH, and at altitudes of up to 15,000 feet. In fact, this personal flight vehicle is so fast that it is capable of being used in racing. The Speeder features four turbojet engines, and together they put out an incredible combined maximum thrust of 705 lbf. You can use three different fuel sources: kerosene, diesel, or JetA.

 

The speeder can hold a passenger of up to 250 pounds, but it is not designed to hold a passenger. It comes with navigation, and it has an instrument light that will allow for night flight in areas where this is allowed. If it’s raining and you want to take the Speeder out for a flight, that’s no problem It’s designed to fly in light to moderate rain.

 

 

Where to Buy

You can get the Speeder at the Jetpack Aviation website https://jetpackaviation.com/. Only 20 of these were developed for recreational use, with the rest going to the government and military. However, as you well know, money talks.

 

Martin Jetpack $100,000

The Martin Jetpack is closer to our culture’s traditional idea of a jetpack because it’s powered by two ducted fans that are strapped to your back.

 

Features

The Martin Jetpack only flies a few meters above the ground, but if that’s what you’re comfortable with this is a great starter model. It comes equipped with a ballistic parachute because this company takes safety seriously. If you were to experience engine failure mid-flight, thanks to this parachute you’d be able to glide safely back to earth.

 

This jetpack has a 200 hp, two-stroke, two-liter engine that works by blowing air downward at high velicity. It weighs 250 lbs. and has a cruise speed of 63 MPH. The Martin meets the FAA Part 103, Ultralight Regulations requirement, so you won’t need an FAA recognized pilot license to fly the friendly skies.

 

Where to Buy

For the time being, you can’t buy a Martin unless you find one available from a private seller. New Zealand’s Martin Aircraft Company has restructured, with rumors that they’ve been sold to a Chinese company. Will they take the technology to the next level? This remains to be seen, but let’s hope so.

 

 

 

Interview with Richard Browning, who built the world’s fastest jetpack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAJM5L9hhBs

 

Once you see what this flying motorcycle can do, you’ll want one of your own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URgznwTph6M

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Why We Don’t Have Jetpacks…Yet

Why We Don’t Have Jetpacks…Yet

Wondering where your jetpack is? You’re not alone.

It has long been believed that dreams of flight are a personal representation of power that signifies you are capable of doing anything. It’s no coincidence that people dream so often of having the ability to fly. If you are in a position of wealth and power, however, you may be able to make that dream reality with your own personal aerial vehicle, aka a jetpack.

 

From Buck Rogers’s degravity belt to George Jetson’s flying suit, as long as humans have been dreaming of ways to make flight possible, we have been imagining a future in which we zip around via jetpacks. Prolific writer and biochemist Isaac Asimov believed by the turn of the 21st Century we would all be traveling via jetpack, even going so far as to claim they’d be as common as travel by bicycle.

 

Now that we are living in the 21st Century, it’s obvious we aren’t commuting via the skyways. This has left many people wondering how much longer we’ll have to wait before we each have the ability to control our own sky travels.

 

To understand why we aren’t able to travel by jetpack yet and how far into the future such travel may be, we first need to understand the technology and why previous attempts at personal flight have failed.

 

The History of the Jetpack

The history of the jetpack can be traced back to 1919, when a German rocket scientist worked on inventing a jet powered vest for the US Army. This would be the first of many attempts to build a jetpack, the vast majority of which were halted due to a lack of funding.

 

Over the following decades, many inventors would injure themselves attempting to create a functional jetpack.

 

In 1961, Wendell Moore’s Bell Rocket Belt caused the engineer to break his kneecap after plunging 2.5 meters. When you consider that his rocket was powered by nitrogen gas that was converted into a steam explosion, a broken kneecap doesn’t sound all that bad.

 

Also in 1961, during the Bell Rocket Belt’s first public display, pilot Harold “Hal” Graham landed on his head after falling 6.7 meters, leading to his premature retirement.

 

Next to be injured was stunt pilot Kinnie Gibson, whose knee was smashed, leading to a lawsuit that spelled the end for the 90% oxygen that would be necessary to power a jetpack.

 

Today there are water-propelled hydrolift devices that function similarly to a jetpack but is run on hydrogen peroxide instead of rocket fuel. Google X considered developing a jetpack but ultimately decided against it after determining how impractical it would be.

 

Another company, Jetpack Aviation, has developed personal vehicles that are capable of vertical landings and takeoffs. Their JB10 can have you in the air for as many as four minutes. They plan to release an electric version of their vehicle this year. Whether or not it will work still remains to be seen.

 

Why We Don’t Have Jetpacks…Yet

Despite predictions that we’d all have jetpacks by now, there’s a very good reason we don’t. A couple of them, actually: gravity and rocket engines.

 

Gravity

When it comes to the jetpack, the issue is not so much that what goes up must come down as it is how long we can stay in the air. This all comes down to Newton’s law of mechanics, which states that to get off the ground you’ll need to use enough force to cancel out the gravity that is holding you to the earth. While this is clearly possible in a large aircraft that can hold plenty of fuel, it’s simply not possible with something the size of a jetpack.

 

Perhaps in the future when we’ve advanced to the point that we can use alternate fuel sources that weigh less, this will change.

 

Rocket Engines

When we imagine jetpacks, we’re picturing a specific vision of a rocketeer in flight—one with the rocket’s engine strapped to his back. Now that you understand how much fuel it would take to counteract gravity and leave the earth, imagine how hot the flame blasting out of that rocket jet would be. It would be like holding a blowtorch to your legs, which you wouldn’t have for long if you remained in flight. In other words, the vision we have for what traveling by jetpack could look like is not ever going to be our reality.

 

But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost.

 

What Jetpacks Might Look Like in the Future

This article is Part One in a two-part series. Next week on Rob Raskin’s Millionaire Survivalist we’ll be taking a look at some more realistic jetpack designs. Want to know where you can buy your own jetpack and how much it’ll set you back? We’re going to be discussing that, too, so don’t miss it!

 

 

Meet the world’s only fully functional jetpack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIMWYeP7O1w

 

Could jetpacks be the future of travel?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Proa4xED6dg

 

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Why You Should Hire a Doomsday Consultant

Nothing is worth investing in more than your own survival.

There are approximately 3.7 million Americans currently preparing for the apocalypse, and by some estimates this figure includes approximately 50% of Silicon Valley billionaires. According to an article in the New Yorker, wealthy survivalists share tips in private Facebook groups, and many Tech Valley millionaires are discussing their survival plans in private and during dinners that have been arranged for this sole purpose.

While networking with others who share your interests and ability to purchase hi-tech gear is a start, taking the advice of other wealthy individuals who also do not have hands-on survival experience is no substitute for hiring an expert who can offer you real life skills and training.

 

Why You Should Train in Survival

Prepping is a multibillion-dollar business, and interest in the topic is exploding as more natural disasters hit and the world becomes increasingly politically and financially unstable. Despite the fact that 3.7 million Americans are interested in prepping, there are 327.2 million people living in the US.

When disaster strikes, there will be hundreds of millions of people who aren’t trained or prepared in any way. The last thing you want to do is end up one of them. No matter how much money you have now, it won’t do you any good after the SHTF unless you’ve prepared and trained beforehand. If you don’t, you’ll end up competing for resources that will run out quickly.

“But what about FEMA?” you may be asking. In survivalist circles, FEMA is considered to be an acronym for “Foolishly Expecting Meaningful Aid.” Ask any survivors of Hurricane Katrina who ended up packed into the Houston Astrodome and they can verify this information.

Survival isn’t just about staying alive after a catastrophic event. It’s about having the tools, skills, and knowledge to shoulder your own personal responsibility and to help your community bounce back. Those who can’t or won’t pull their weight won’t last long after TEOTWAWKI. Once they’re gone, the rest of the survivors are going to need strong leaders to pull together and persevere.

 

With the right training, you can be one of those strong leaders.

 

Top Survival Experts

There are too many incredible prepping experts to name them all in a single article, but here are a few notable experts. While not all of their websites offer consult services, for the right price we’re certain something could be arranged.

Ed Stafford

If you were naked on an island, without any weapons, food, or outside contact, could you survive? Maybe you couldn’t now, but survivalist and adventurer Ed Stafford already has.

 

When it comes to real-life survival that goes beyond the theoretical, Ed Stafford knows of what he speaks. Stafford holds the Guinness World Record for being the first man to walk the length of the Amazon, a journey he blogged and filmed about for his two-part special Walking the Amazon.

 

This writer, speaker, and explorer is the star of the Discovery Channel’s Into the Unknown, Marooned, and Naked and Marooned. He is also an accomplished speaker who has appeared at many events where the attendees were fortunate enough to hear him talk about what it takes to survive in the wild.

 

Stafford’s website has contact information for booking for speaking events. To inquire about hiring Ed Stafford for personal training, visit his website.

 

Learn more about extreme survival with Ed Stafford.

 

Megan Hine

Many TV survivalists owe their skills and training to internationally renowned expert Megan Hine. Hine is an author and adventurer who has led hundreds of expeditions around the world.

 

While Hines is known as a “celebrity” adventure organizer, she offers customized survival tours that can be tailored to your own unique needs, whether that means a submarine, skydiving, or anything in-between. She offers complete and total discretion, along with the private security team you’ll need to make sure your personal adventure is secure.

 

Are you ready to have the kind of real-world experience that can prepare you for the apocalypse? You couldn’t have a better guide by your side than Megan Hine.

 

You can contact Megan’s management and learn more about planning your own adventure at her official website.

 

Let Megan Hine teach you how to get into the survival mindset.

 

Kyle Harth

Kyle Harth of Pantaeo Productions served fourteen years in Special Forces and four years as an Infantryman. After multiple combat tours in the Middle East, Europe, and the Caribbean, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more adept military survivalist.

 

Military, law enforcement, and people from the private sector just like you have turned to Harth for training. He has also appeared on many television shows, where he performed firing demonstrations and shared his expert opinions about what it takes to survive in crisis situations.

 

If you’re looking for a true expert on equipment and tactics who truly understands how to teach his clients the foundations of survival, military expert Kyle Harth is your guy.

 

You can contact Harth to learn more about his private consulting services at his website.

 

Mastering the basics with Kyle Harth.


What makes a prepper a prepping expert?

 

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Are Luxury Survival Kits Worth It?

Are Luxury Survival Kits Worth It?

Pricey Preppi bug-out bags are proof you’ll need more than wealth to survive.

 

After surviving a terrifying 4.4 earthquake in Los Angeles in 2014, Ryan Kuhlman and Lauren Tafuri decided to form Preppi, a company dedicated to providing luxury survival kits to the wealthy and clueless.

 

Naming a survival company Preppi, which evokes images of prep school students in pastel plaids, is something that would only make sense to those who have very little chance of surviving TEOTWAWKI. That is precisely why sales of the bag took off not among wealthy preppers, but among people who read Vogue and shop at Goop.

 

What Is in the Prepster Ultra Luxe?

Preppi’s most expensive product, the Prepster Ultra-Advanced Fireproof Emergency Bag, is available online for $4,995. For that price, what could be inside? After taking a closer look, we learned the price isn’t about what’s on the inside; it’s about what’s on the outside. It’s all about being seen with a superficial item that signifies wealth.

 

The problems with Preppi’s products will be apparent to anyone with a genuine interest in survivalism as soon as you take a look at the products on their website.

 

In the Prepster’s product description it mentions a lack of sling or shoulder straps, “so you’ll need to carry it like a giant purse.” When you’re using two hands to lug a giant purse around, whose hands are you supposed to use for actual survival tasks? Does it matter if the handle is made from natural bridle leather if you have to decide between carrying the bag and doing anything else?

 

Inside the Prepster Ultra Luxe you will find:

  • Solar panel
  • Two rain ponchos
  • Power & charging kit
  • Mylar sleeping bags
  • Water filter
  • Space pen
  • LED headband
  • LED lantern
  • Rope
  • First-aid kit
  • Field notes notebook
  • Flashlight
  • Dopp kit
  • A $55 tobacco-scented Malin + Goetz candle
  • $32 Malin + Goetz Essentials Kit, because are you really surviving if you don’t have a good grapefruit cleanser on-hand?
  • MAST Coffee Chocolate bar
  • Waterproof matches
  • Pricey Marvis dental products
  • Poker set
  • Satellite messenger
  • Water supply
  • Food supply and additional “emergency food”
  • Night vision goggles
  • Leatherman tool
  • Flask

 

Ironically, these products may represent that last taste of coffee and whiff of tobacco you may ever have, unless you trade the bag for actual coffee and tobacco later on.

 

Best of all, the Prepster comes with complimentary monogramming. That way after the SHTF, when someone kills you for the bag or what they imagine might be useful inside it, they’ll know what your initials were.

 

Preppi’s Mission

According to their website’s About Us page, at Preppi they “want everyone to be prepared when the unexpected happens.” In other words, the same goal every prepper company has. They also state that they want you help “you face real emergency situations with confidence.” In other words, the confidence only upscale designer goods can bring.

 

Here at Rob Raskin’s Millionaire Survivalist, the aspect of Preppi we found most unsettling was the focus on making sure you have only the most expensive items when paired with the complete absence of any mention of training. What good does it do anyone to have a high-end rope and designer gloves to use to jump out of their second-story loft if they’ll break their neck because they have no idea what they’re doing?

 

Preppi’s focus on style over substance isn’t surprising when you consider the owners’ professional backgrounds and the skills they bring to the table. Kuhlman is a a film director and Tafuri is a costume designer and stylist. It should surprise no one that their focus would be on aesthetics.

 

On Preppi’s site they state, “… it is no longer an option to treat the topic of preparedness lightly,” then they include a $72-per-case coffee chocolate bar in their most expensive survival kit to show you just how much weight they give the subject themselves.

 

Their Instagram features photos of Gwyneth Paltrow, people wearing their bags at expensive travel destinations, and their bags in carefully curated luxury properties, also with no mention of survival skills or training.

 

The good news is, Preppi offers a lifetime guarantee on their products. The bad news? In an apocalyptic event, if you’re relying on their products to survive, you’re not going to need to take them up on it.

 

Why Instant Survival Kits Aren’t Right for You

No matter what the price tag, every prepper will have different needs that no one-size-fits-all kit could possibly address. You have the means, so it’s worth taking the time to find out who the best people are to customize your survival plan and make sure you have the correct gear.

 

Next week at Millionaire Survivalist, we’re going to discuss who the top survival pros you can hire are in the US today.

 

 

Ready for a laugh? Take a look inside Preppi’s $5K bag.

Take a look inside this “doomsday closet” to see a better use of $5K.

 

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Mars One

Mars One: What Went Wrong?

Now that the company has dissolved, will we ever colonize Mars?

Travel to Mars would be dangerous, difficult, and expensive. So why do so many billionaires want to do it?

 

As long as there are people with unlimited means who believe the Earth’s days are numbered, they will be ready and willing to invest in their own survival. To determine whether or not space exploration is a sound investment for individuals, we must first look to the example of the failed Mars One, which aimed to establish a permanent settlement on Mars.

 

Mars One promised one-way tickets to space, where those who were lucky enough to secure an enviable position on a shuttle would become permanent residents of the Red Planet. However, it was recently discovered Mars One is bankrupt. What went wrong?

 

Mars One Proposed Timeline

This was the initial timeline set forth by the ambitious Mars One corporation, which believed they’d be able to begin colonizing Mars within the next few years.

 

2012

In 2012, the Mars One organization and its founder Bas Lansdorp announced their plan to colonize Mars by sending groups of “pioneers” on a one-way mission to space, never to return to Earth.

 

2013

In 2013, the first round of astronaut applications closed. In total, over 200,000 people applied.

 

2015

In 2015, the final 100 astronauts were chosen, boosting them to instant celebrity status, even though it was short-lived.

 

2020

One year from now, in 2020, Mars One planned to launch their first robotic mission.

 

2023

In 2023, Mars One planned to deliver the first colonists to Mars. They believed at least six groups of astronauts would complete this first mission.

 

How They Planned to Fund It

As we discussed in last week’s post, there are a handful of billionaires racing to become the first to use their own money to colonize Mars. However, that is not how Mars One’s flights were going to be funded. Incredibly, the original plan was to turn the Mars million into a self-funded reality television program.

 

Mars One and Big Brother producer Paul Römer believed they’d bring in enough in revenue by giving the average person a glimpse into how people prepared for the mission, from training through the eventual landing on the planet. The end goal was to get enough people to Mars that a new society could be created as an alternative to a future Earth that has been decimated.

 

If all went according to plan, at some point the ad revenue and/or paid viewers would dry up, and of course everyone eventually tires of TV shows, but Mars One didn’t think that far into the future. Unless, of course, they planned spin-off shows about the colonizers’ lives after their arrival. Now we’ll never see so much as a pilot episode.

 

Those who aimed to become one of the Mars 100 paid a $40 application fee. With 200,000 applicants, they collected $8M off application fees alone—still a far cry from their $6B goal.

 

Swiss documents were exposed on Reddit that Mars One was bankrupt about about to be liquidated. At the time the bankruptcy was filed, the company had fewer than $25,000 in their account, a far cry from the billions that would be required for a single mission.

 

Why Scientists Said It Wouldn’t Work

From the beginning, prominent scientists and engineers said Mars One wouldn’t work. The evidence leans heavily in their favor.

  • Humans would need to grow their own food because they can’t bring enough from Earth to sustain them. These crops would produce oxygen, which would create pressure. If the nitrogen -generating equipment necessary to grow food should fail, everyone on Mars would suffocate within 68 days.
  • Whatever environment is present on Mars now would be irreversibly damaged once humans arrived—bringing billions of bacteria with them. If there is life there now in any form, we could wipe them out, along with the conditions that might allow us to survive.
  • The likelihood of the astronauts surviving the dangerous journey is highly unlikely. This equipment simply hasn’t been tested for long enough to make Mars One’s 2023 goal. In 2014 the company said they wouldn’t show a catastrophic event during a live broadcast, which is hardly comforting or confidence-inspiring.

 

Do you think Mars colonization is worth the money and effort? At TEOTWAWKI, would you trust today’s technology to safely usher you to a new society on a new planet?

 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has plans to begin colonizing Mars as early as 2050. Musk has everything from new rocket fuels to refueling depots around the solar system in development. Will Musk reach his goal of seeing his Starship rocket make its first commercial flight in two years? It doesn’t seem likely, but with access to limitless funds and the most brilliant scientific minds of our times, it’s hardly out of the question.

 

 

Mars One goes bankrupt.

 

How the US Military could colonize Mars.

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The Billionaire Space Race: Who Will Win?

The Billionaire Space Race: Who Will Win?

No matter which one gets to Mars first, humanity will be the real winner.

 

 

If you had every resource in the world at your disposal, would you make survival on another planet your main focus? Billionaires around the world are doing just that. The billionaire space race has only just gotten started, and already some are closer to the finish line than others.

 

Who Will be the First Billionaire on Mars?

The race to Mars is about more than survival. Billionaires are in competition with each other for bragging rights as well. Who will win? Only time—and a whole lot of money—will tell. So far over $18.4 billion has been spent on space exploration, and we can expect that figure to skyrocket faster than a billionaire on his way to Mars in the future.

 

Who are the billionaires currently winning the race? These are the top three contenders.

 

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a citizen of the U.S., South Africa, and Canada, and next he wants to become a citizen of Mars.

 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has the ultimate goal of building a rocket that can carry 100 passengers to Mars once every 26 months, when the planets are aligned. So far the plan is to launch the first crew in 2024, with the possibility of beginning to colonize the red planet by 2025. The billionaire believes humans could live on mars within the next 30 years.

 

How much is SpaceX worth? In 2018 the company reported $2 billion in revenue, and they are continually improving their systems to increase profits. SpaceX is getting ready for a Mars voyage by perfecting human transportation here on earth. Their SpaceX Hyperloop will allow humans to travel via a system of sealed tubes.

 

Musk claims his motives are not about money or beating out the competition to become the first billionaire to successfully travel to Mars. Instead, the PayPal mogul says he is driven by the desire to help humanity overcome a catastrophic extinction event.

 

Of this potential future event, Musk said, “The alternative is to become a spacefaring civilization and a multi-planetary species.

 

Richard Branson

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is also developing a Hyperloop system, and that’s just the beginning of what the adventurous billionaire has in the works. Rather than planning to take elite groups of human survivors to Mars, Branson wants to make the survival of an extinction event accessible to all humans by making it possible to fly outside of our atmosphere.

 

So far, Virgin Galactic is off to an impressive start. Since 2018, the company has been testing flights with human pilots. Branson has said he believes it will be a matter of months and not years before he personally is able to experience flight outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

Beyond Virgin Galactic, Branson also has other companies working on space travel, including The Spaceship Company and Virgin Orbit. Of his future chances at success, Branson said, “Space is hard—but worth it.” The billionaire believes space travel is inevitable. For him, perhaps it is.

 

Despite Branson’s plans to make space flight accessible to average people, at this time each trip is projected to cost over $200K. Of travel in space, the billionaire said, “This fascination with flying, breaking boundaries, and exploring the great unknown has never left me.”

 

Jeff Bezos

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin was founded because the billionaire believes space travel is going to be necessary if humans are going to survive into the future. At the rate we’re destroying our planet, he may be correct.

 

Blue Origin is the billionaire’s most important project. Of space travel Bezos said, “In order to preserve Earth, our home, for our grandchildren’s grandchildren, we must go to space to tap its unlimited resources and energy.

 

Bezos believes that because of his wealth he has an obligation to invest in the long-term survival of the human race because this area of research isn’t accessible to anyone except those who are in a position of extreme wealth.

 

Blue Origin is on a more modern timeline than the other billionaire-led space companies, however. This company expects to have humans in space within 200 years, and at the soonest in a few decades.

Bezos has mentioned how important Blue Origin is to him not just because of what can be accomplished in his lifetime, but for what is to come. “This is super important to me, and I believe on the longest time frame — and really here I’m thinking of a timeframe of a couple of hundred years, so over many decades — I believe and I get increasing conviction with every passing year, that Blue Origin, the space company, is the most important work I’m doing,” Bezos said.

 

As many accomplishments and advancements as these three billionaires have enjoyed, the are not the only members of the 2% in the space race. American billionaire Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Aerospace and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Starshot are also working on improving space exploration and travel.

 

Be sure to check back next week, when Rob Raskin’s Millionaire Survivalist takes an in-depth at what went wrong with the Mars One project.

 

Can Mars be colonized?

 

Learn more about Elon Musk’s plan to colonize Mars.


 

 

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Are Robots the Key to the Survival of the Wealthy?

If you can afford to buy robots, they may just save your life.

In the movie The Terminator, cyborg robots are the downfall of humanity. But what if Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character was as wildly off about the future of humans and robots as Governor Schwarzenegger was about his policies?

While there is some controversy over whether or not the robots would win, let’s stick to focusing on the good robotics technology can do for us right now and in the immediate future. Because in the event of a SHTF situation, that’s when we’re going to need them.

 

The truth is, robots could be the key to humanity’s survival in the event of an apocalyptic event—but only if you can afford them.

Robots could take over many tasks that would otherwise need to be performed by workers, but without the risk of relying upon actual humans who can steal from you or betray you. You’ll never need to worry about the loyalties of the robots who serve as your guards and other workers, because they’re programmed to do what you need them to—and nothing else.

An Overview of Robot Technology Today

Robot technology is already heavily in use for the good of mankind, both as individually and collectively.

Security Robots

Security robots are already in use in our society. Artificial intelligence technology has been developed to work together with humans to assist with security in stores. At this time, the technology is advanced enough that these robots have the ability to navigate the premises and identify problem situations.

Imagine the potential for these security robots at your bug-out location? Robots could potentially be highly armed and able to detect—and annihilate—any threat near the perimeter of your luxury bunker before it ever had the chance to get close to you, your family, or your team.

Rescue Robots

Today there are a number of robots and drones that are designed to aid in search and rescue after a disaster. There are aerial, land, and aquatic robots that can navigate autonomously to assist with dangerous search and rescue missions and the collection of data. There are also robots that can deliver medications and organs for transplant. The potential in this area is nearly limitless.

A robot that can single-handedly rescue you hasn’t been developed yet, but researchers are working on it so you can expect this in the future.

Snow Robots

Researchers at Georgia Tech are developing the SnoMote, an autonomous robot that can gather scientific data about our glaciers in icy environments humans can’t reach or tolerate. This means we’ll be able to explore areas that were previously too dangerous.

These robots are designed to navigate Arctic and Antarctic environments to help NASA researchers determine what is causing the glaciers to melt, and tests have already been successful in the Alaskan outback. Although the SnoMote already exists and is in use, the current models are merely prototypes of what we can expect from this technology in the future.

Future generations of SnoMotes are projected to be about double the size of the current robots, increasing what they’ll be able to do and the amount of data they’ll be able to collect and store.

What We Can Expect from Robots in the Future

To see into the future of robotics technology, we need only look to the current research that is being undertaken. There are robots in development now that will revolutionize this technology.

Companion Robots

There are currently many researchers working on social companion robot technology, as loneliness is a huge problem in today’s society, and studies show it can be a major contributor to poor health. Think loneliness is bad now? Wait until most of humanity is wiped out.

In the future, robots could take over many roles that are played by humans today, such as housekeeper, nanny, and even romantic partners. Robots could perform tasks like cooking and cleaning, they could help raise children, and there are even sexbots in development that could take the place of human partners in the case there are no female survivors. Or at least not where you are.

 

Swarm Robots

At the University of New York, researchers are investigating how multi-robot organisms that are made out of swarms of individual robots can work and evolve together. These swarm robots are also known as Symbiotic Evolutionary Robot Organisms, aka “Symbrion.”

One of the most unique facets of these robots is they will have an artificial immune system. This immune system would protect each individual robot and the collective swarm. It’ll be able to detect problems and correct them, just like our immune system works.

Here at the Millionaire Survivalist, if we had to bet our money on a certain technology leading to robot overlords, it’s this one.

Why Some Silicon Valley Millionaires Are Afraid of Robots

According to tech insiders, robots are already a threat to the future, but not because they’re capable of taking over on their own. Instead, the concern is that the combination of artificial intelligence and automation is going to lead to replacing so many human workers with robot technology that it will destroy our economy. Some even say this is going to be the next industrial revolution.

It is predicted that half the population could be out of work within the next few decades. If this triggered the collapse of society—which it most likely would—then indeed the robots will win. However, only because humanity caused it. At the very least, this scenario would most likely trigger a revolution that would be certain to cause TEOTWAWKI.

Do you think robots are potentially dangerous, or are they the key to the survival of humanity? Let me, Rob Raskin, know in the comments!

 

 

This security robot can detect weapons. Incredible!

 

Learn about Knightscope’s robot security guards.