> CAT is currently at NASA Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3, meaning we are in the midst of performing experiments to probe its feasibility, thanks to private sponsorship

Clicking on the link, 3 is a really far way from actually flying. Like, they haven't successfully demonstrated this in a lab yet. For reference, there are 9 stages, the final one being "it's in space".

It seems like an interesting idea, but I'm with the other commenters in asking why this needs money from outside the traditional channels. It's the kind of long-winded and technical writeup I would expect from a grant proposal, not a Kickstarter.