Out of confinement once again! And I’m still healthy, good for the people around me. I was excited to see how the place I will be spending most of my time, looks like. It’s really cool! Being surrounded by space art like pictures, sculptures, books, and past prototypes definitely create a motivating environment. I’ll take notes on that for whenever I try to set up an office for myself.

First day, all suited up (just like in New York). I got a ride from my house to the office, even if I live just a few blocks away, that’s nice from my boss. After all the explanations of the office operations I was introduced to some technical detail about the current mission we are working on. Again, interesting and ambitious. Let’s not forget I got to know the most important codes, the bathroom code, and the WiFi password.

During this week I had to process a lot of new information, including the grand architecture. Which is a little more complicated than I thought but seems very reasonable once you connect all the threads. Even after countless science fiction shows, this field still feels totally unknown for my way of thinking. I have to be honest, I’m still a little skeptical if some of the details of this project are really viable to develop and I would like someone with advanced space physics knowledge to verify it. But I also think it is worth the effort to work on the concept. It can change many things in the space industry and, actually be relevant for the human species.

One of the main projects I’m assigned to work on is the smart-wiki. First, It will be an internal tool to manage and sort information, but it can possibly be an income source in the future. I have to build it from scratch and I was already recommended a language and framework. More things to learn!
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I feel comfortable enough to start working hard but my brain is still a little lazy, I have to eat better, get used to a new schedule, and organize my tasks to improve my performance. Let’s see how I do next week.

​Fabio

The SmartWiki project started this Monday. SmartWiki is a project that combines documents with a variety of topics and keywords into a single Web browser tool. This project will be the basic work needed to build LSEI. My role in this project is to organize articles carefully selected by Michael. It's similar to the Star database that I've been working on before. Read the article, organize the contents, and enter the information in the database. I made a list of different topics and contents in the database so that it is easy to organize them all at once. Keywords and phrases in each list can be easily searched and checked through programming. In short, it is my role to create the contents of the program.

The SmartWiki team had its first meeting this Monday. At the team meeting, all participants in the project gathered at Google Meet to brief themselves and discuss the direction of the project. Hardware engineers do not participate in SmartWiki projects because there is no physical work involved. Michael is leading the project and the rest of the people are in charge of the software. We haven't decided which tools and programming languages will be used for this project yet. I'm trying to create a database that I'm making in many ways. Once the methods and the tools needed for production are determined, it won't take much time to be made.

On Wednesday, Michael attended the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group meeting. Of course it was a digital meeting. Briefly speaking, The LEAG is a community-based, interdisciplinary form. Therefore, the members and participants of the LEAG consist of experts from a wide community.

Michael explained the Lunar dust. The most memorable thing is that Moon Dust Is Super Toxic to Human Cells, for example asbestos. As I listened to it, I became interested, so I looked for more about moon dust.
Astronauts who have been to the moon have commonly complained of similar symptoms, such as allergies, and a study by the European Space Agency's ESA showed that moon dust clings to clothing and poses serious health risks to astronauts. Yes, Lunar dust is made of sharp, abrasive, and nasty particles.
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A recent article reminded me that the U.S. unemployment rate is really serious. Another 2.4 million Americans filed for first-time benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis. It's an unbelievable figure. Even as the economy is beginning to reopen in parts of the country, layoffs and furloughs have taken hold of the US labor market. I hope we can fill up the article with good news as soon as possible.

Byungik Jung​

Finally in Washington!

​After a few months trying to survive this pandemic in New York, it is actually encouraging to be in a safer place. I just hope I didn’t catch it during my journey.

New environment, new house, new boss, new colleagues, and new work. Michael and Byungik are very cool and helpful people, I think I will enjoy working with them. I like that there is so much nature around here but dislike the unreliable Wi-Fi at my house.

Even though I have to serve a 2-week quarantine (just in case), we started digitally working in a new project called Smartwiki. Quite interesting and ambitious. I like challenges, so I’ll try my best to learn and develop new skills to work on it. Also, involved in this project, we have three knowledgeable guys that I was told I can consider my mentors. I really appreciate that this time, I have the option to ask for help and guidance if I need it.

Even after working on several companies that claim to use agile methodologies on daily basis but don’t practice it at all, LiftPort is the first one actually using that approach (And Michael didn’t even mention ‘agile’ a single time). Sprints, daily meetings, reviews, feedback, and small tasks to reach big objectives. So far, the closest to agile theory I learned in school.
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Next week, I will be able to go to the office. I haven’t shown any clear symptoms so far, I guess I didn’t catch it or maybe I was a symptomless case since statistics state 1 in 5 New Yorkers got it, and most of them didn’t even realize. Who knows?

Fabio

Finally! On Friday, May 8th, 2020 NFL League schedule was announced. I was very worried that the season would be canceled because of the coronavirus. But we can cheer for the Seattle Seahawks this September. And there's one thing to brag about. ESPN is broadcasting Korean professional baseball, not the NBA. With the NBA game canceled and postponed, an American broadcaster has purchased and broadcast broadcasting rights for Korean professional baseball. Don't miss the chance to see a bat throw that's hard to see in the NBA! I support team KIA.

Next is bad news. Please look at the link attached below. Unemployment in the U.S. stood at 14.7 percent, the highest level since the economic meltdown. That's a shocking figure. It's so sad to hear that many people are losing their jobs and not doing their economic activities. However, this is only a reported figure. More people are losing their jobs and self-isolation at home. Ladies and gentlemen, please avoid outdoor activities for all of us and follow the government guidelines. I'm sure our little practice will produce tremendous results.

We had a really important meeting this week. Originally it was supposed to be held in New Mexico, but it was changed to a digital meeting due to the influence of the coronavirus. The meeting was held from Monday morning to Thursday afternoon. It started at 7'o clock every morning, but I'm sorry that It didn't start more flexible. Michael came to work early every morning and was very tired to prepare for the meeting. I couldn't participate because of the meeting policy. Fortunately, after the meeting, Michael summarized the important details and told me. We met a lot of celebrities at this meeting. Michael said their presentation was very helpful to our business plan. We expected to find new colleagues at this meeting and are contacting them and waiting for an answer. He praised this meeting as the most beneficial meeting that Michael participated in. I respect Michael for focusing on the meeting for 4 days.

I finished looking for information about the Two Star page and started looking for information about the One Star page. There are almost three times as many people as there are two stars. It is expected to take much time. We're creating a tier on each page to sort out the people with the highest priority among Two Stars. Some were added and others were demoted to One Star. We're doing our best to get this database done early. Please wait a little longer!
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Finally, a new intern, Fabio, will fly in next Monday. Michael and I are going to pick him up and I'm helping him find a place to live. You'll be able to see a more advanced LiftPort before June. Thank you!

​Byungik Jung

A lot has happened this week. First of all, the cumulative number of coronavirus patients in the U.S. exceeded 1 million on the 28th of March. And more than 58,000 people died from the virus, surpassing the number of Americans who died in the Vietnam War. According to Worldometer, an international statistics website, the cumulative number of patients confirmed to be Corona 19 worldwide is 3,003,352 on the 26th. The cumulative number of confirmed cases exceeded 2 million on the 15th and then exceeded 3 million in 12 days. The effects of the virus are seriously affecting the global economy, including the U.S. stock market and international oil prices. I hope this situation will be resolved as soon as possible and good news will come out on the news.

NASA says it has signed agreements with three private companies - Space X, Blue Origin, and Dynamics - to develop a lunar lander to carry out the Artemis Project, which sends humanity back to the moon by 2024. NASA plans to send two astronauts back to the moon in 2024 with the Artemis project after the manned lunar probe Apollo 17 in 1972. When the spacecraft reaches lunar orbit, the astronaut takes the lunar lander off the moon and returns to the spacecraft on the lunar lander. It's the most eye-catching part of the Manned Moon Exploration Artemis project. I'm looking forward to seeing the landers made by the three companies over the next 10 months and NASA's evaluation results.

So there's a tremendous development going on in the space industry. Following last week's Space X rocket recycling video, Space X is scheduled to launch a manned spacecraft later this month, and I'm happy to see exciting videos every week. I think this kind of development in the space industry can be of great help to save the LiftPort budget and proceed with the project. I hope the day will come soon when a satellite is made and loaded into a rocket.

This week, we selected the most important of the more than 1,000 business cards in the Notion. We selected people who will be of great help to LiftPort's project and people who have done great work. We started this work because we need someone to join us in our business. We have identified the information and contact information of the VIP and are entering them into the items created in the Note. Quite a few people were chosen and couldn't get their information easily, so they haven't done it yet.
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At 9 am on Friday, Michael had a video interview with Fabio from Peru. Fabio will soon be an intern for our LiftPort. Fabio had an hour of the interview with Michael and talked to me for five minutes. I introduced the contents of my work from March until now and about the Formal Monday that happened yesterday. Fabio is good at software and programming. I could see him as early as this month. I look forward to the future of LiftPort!

Byungik Jung

Have you seen Space X's Falcon 9 launch video? SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 StarLink satellites was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:30 p.m. on April 22.
I watched this live video with Michael on Youtube. Falcon 9 was a success.
Space X failed to recover the propellant in the last launch, but this time it succeeded in recovering the rocket.

After the rocket launch, the second stage rocket propellant and communications satellites headed into space low orbit, and the first stage rocket propellant landed on a marine Drone barge in the Atlantic Ocean and was safely recovered. On the 27th of next month, Space X's manned spaceship Crew Dragon will conduct its first flight test.

So far, Space X has launched seven rockets, increasing the number of communications satellites to 420 in total. Reclaiming a rocket is very useful because it can save a lot of money on launching.
In other words, as the recycling technology of rockets advances further, Liftport's communications satellite launch will be cheaper.

This week, we are making a Pitch Deck to submit to investors. First, I figured out what Pitch Deck is and how to make it. Pitch Deck is a simple presentation used to provide our audience with a brief overview of our business plans. To create a Pitch Deck, I found PowerPoint Templates, copied, and pasted the link to the Note. A pitch deck should be no longer than 20 slides in length. Ideally, it should be as concise as possible. Finally, I created a sub-title for 10 slides on the Note page. Michael is completing the page by writing down the details of each item.

Let me tell you about the progress of the Database I'm making. I've entered almost all of my 1000 business cards into the Note. I numbered each item to sort out the business cards. Then I entered the number on the business card into all the business cards on the Note page. After classifying them as numbers, we can easily manage people with similar characteristics in the Note. The database took more than three weeks to build, and it will all be finished by early next month. I'm so excited to contact my colleagues who will be working on our project soon.
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Michael said, if Pitch Deck and its investment plan are approved by investors, we could get $1,000,000 after the end of May. I will do my best to help Michael get the budget.

Byungik Jung

The weather in Washington is so clear and sunny these days. I don't have to wear winter clothes and coats anymore because of the cold weather. People began to go out more and more because of the nice weather. I was surprised that There were a lot of cars moving on the freeway.

Spring and new warmth are coming to our company. Michael said he has plans to hire a new intern. Michael was worried about whether the New intern would stay near the company and work in the office or not if he got chosen. I'm a little worried, too. Taking Airplanes and visiting airports are the most susceptible to the virus. If she comes, a variety of work will be needed to ensure our safety.
I would like to introduce Korea's virus response and news.

Almost 44 million eligible voters were heading to the polls on Wednesday to vote in parliamentary elections, making it the first country with a major coronavirus outbreak to hold nationwide elections since the pandemic began. All vote office was equipped with strict new procedures enacted to protect them on election day. Strict safety and social distancing measures were in place for the vote. It would be provided a roadmap for upcoming elections in other countries, including the Nov. 3 election in the United States.

Michael and I spent a lot of time this week posting various photos and works on Redbubble. Of the many artists who worked with LiftPort, there were over 2,000 photos of one artist named Nyein Aung. We sorted out the most profitable of the 2,000 photos and put them in our folder. I posted the remaining photos on Redbubble after I got confirmation from Michael. It took a long time to modify the photo because each product had different photo dimension standards. However, this modification is essential to make a profit through the product. It is not easy and not familiar, but I want to try my best to introduce various works that represent the company to many people.

Of the many recent spending plans, the 1 million$ budget plan has been completed. The final version was made by modifying both the content to be included in each item and the expected duration of the project. I typed this data into Smartsheet so that I can see it as a Gantt Chart. The 1 million$ budget plan was rather complicated, but it became definite after Michael made the last modification. This Template was applied to the second expenditure plan, and the contents were added and modified. It still takes more time to complete, but I want to finish it quickly.
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These days, my classmates seem to be very tired because they only live at home. I am also planning and practicing various indoor activities and study plans to soothe my frustration. Let's all cheer up a little bit and defeat the virus together!

Byungik Jung

Hi guys! LiftPort' two goals in this month are to decorate and introduce our work. The main goal is to commercialize our project and then make profits. LiftPort Project is very profitable, but It's not a familiar topic for people, and It's hard to define in one sentence. We started this plan to blend our thoughts into daily life and the surrounding environment for people.

Even now, Michael is very busy answering the phone. His phone has no time to rest to introduce and explain our plans. Michael is also considering creating a variety of books and presentations to educate students and people online. So we've started looking for ways to make our plans easier and more accurate for many investors and fans.

The LiftPort office and database have a lot of aerospace materials and works of art representing LiftPort. We are planning to use these to make a profit through the P.O.D. platform. P.O.D. stands for Print-On-Demand, a customizable e-commerce platform that allows anyone to create and sell products online from anywhere.

First of all, we will create a LiftPort company account on the POD site. We don't make rare and unique things like bags and clothes from a luxury brand. For example, we will design a T-shirt, Home décor, wall art, etc. for things we use frequently in our daily life. The goal is to make people interested by putting pictures that represent LiftPort in their household items. We plan to introduce each product with a carefully selected photo to attract attention and introduce it to the website as well as detailed explanations.

I visited various platforms to find the most suitable POD for our plan. The three things that we value the most are quality, product diversity, and yield. Each platform had a variety of policies and styles, making it difficult to choose one. We chose RedBubble and several products will be born soon.
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Also, we are using Smartsheet to make LiftPort expense planning. We are confident that Smartsheet's Gantt Chart feature will make our spending plans easier to see at a glance. To make better use of Smartsheet, I watched various Smartsheet training materials in Webinar and Youtube. I applied various functions that I learned and transferred the expense plan to Smartsheet which was made with Excel. Lastly, I have listed various items in the order bar and added a brief description.

​Byungik Jung

There was a formal Monday this week. Formal Monday is a time to report to other employees what they learned and worked for a month. After the presentation, other employees ask some questions about it. The presenter will answer questions and receive feedback from other employees.

It was very difficult for me to present in English. As I prepared on the presentation, I found some things I didn't fully understand. So it took longer to prepare the presentation than expected.

I explained LiftPort's projects like Oreads and Tight-rope and I showed what I've learned and what I've done. Lastly, I got the feedback from Michael and knew exactly what I was missing or misinformed.

I made a business card database with Notion to manage our project partners. Holy moly! The notion has many great tools for making a database. The notion database is special for three reasons. First, They're highly customizable so I can add whatever types of data I want. Second, all item I add are a unique Notion page can organize more information. Third, I can view the same database in several ways to perform actions.

So I created new tables to add data like personal information and pictures of the business card. The notion makes it easy to identify information and to classify each item. I haven't finished it yet because I still have a lot of data left to type. But even if it takes a long time, we don't have to worry about losing any data once I've made it. I'm so happy to be able to easily find and contact a business partner for LiftPort with the database I created.

Aye Chihuahua! Time went by so fast that already 4 weeks passed and it became April. The United States has a terrible illness of COVID-19. Michael and I check the number of new cases every day on COVID-19 Global Cases at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) website.

The U.S. is now more than three times the number of China's confirmed cases and there is no sign that the number will decrease. We are embarrassed by the unexpected Government statement and shocked by the doubling the new cases in four-day cycles. Unfortunately, my internship is at the beginning of the Pandemic statement.

​Byungik Jung

On Thursday, The US overtook Italy and China as the country with the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Americans are suffering and dying because the US Government failed to act quickly and decisively to prevent the virus' spread. The US has now seen about 1,195 deaths and the number is rising rapidly.

The number of confirmed cases has been increasing tremendously every day since the first day I started working at LiftPort. Michael and I are constantly checking the number of confirmed increases and predicting the future. This is because more than 30 percent of the U.S. stock market's fall has resulted and our monthly plans are being further delayed.

The coronavirus is changing how we live our daily lives. Whenever I visit the grocery store every week, I am often surprised by the number of people and empty shelves.
Toilet paper, hand sanitizer and other hygiene essentials began flying off store shelves weeks ago
The ultimate question everyone wants to know is when will the store shelves be restocked
The COVID-19 pandemic is gutting the global economy and forcing entire nations into quarantine. In many countries around the world, the 'Social Distance Setting Strategy' is a public health strategy aimed at curbing or delaying the spread of infections.

They say that by limiting people's behavior and maintaining the physical distance between people, fewer opportunities for contact, fewer opportunities to transmit COVID-19 to others.
There are also a series of countries and regions that seek "lockdown" by blocking countries or regions to forcibly restrict people, citizens and businesses' activities.

Never before had the Olympic Games been postponed or canceled for something other than war.
But on Tuesday, Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach agreed to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by about one year.
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I came here to experience American culture. I was studying English in San Diego and working in LiftPort, experiencing American culture little by little. However, due to the influence of COVID-19, many cultural facilities in Washington state and Tacoma are not available. I can't freely do outdoor activities with people or even eat out. I explained the rules by studying American football and watching the 2020 Super Bowl LIV with my friends. From now on, we can't go to see the games together at the end of this year. I want to spend more time in the US with you. Let's follow the government's guidelines and defeat the virus altogether.

​Byungik Jung