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This whole month we have been working on crafting a 2-hour event called Better Futures: The Future of the Space. This was the first of probably many events that LiftPort will be doing.
The main topic was discussing the priorities and budget regarding to space development using the US navy analogy of “blue water vs brown water” (of course, applied to space). Even considering the few resources we had, I think it went well. I was responsible for the technical side of the event. It wasn’t very hard but I had to learn a lot of things I didn’t know before. Small things like crafting google forms, creating newsletter lists, streaming Zoom to YouTube, recording meetings, managing the internal system for the participants, moderating the comments on YouTube Live, and understand the overall technology in the background of the event. I also had to work a lot on the website. I crafted the events tab and everything under it. Additionally, I updated a lot of the content in the site, but I think we still need to work on it. I did commit some mistakes due to inexperience, such as starting the Live 4 min before the actual event (which doesn’t look good at all when people who couldn’t attend try to view our captured video), or not pinning the profile of the speaker on time. But other than that, I would consider it a successful piece of work. The speakers were amazing, timing was okay, participation and comments were insightful. Not bad! It was a little stressing (especially on Michael side) but after everything happened, it was very satisfying and cheerful hearing that people liked it and want more of this in the future. Fabio
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This week we posted 6 videos. 3 Related to the New Era Policy and 3 for the Book Clubs. And by the way, for the people asking what software we use for our content, I have used both Kdenlive and Adobe Premiere Pro to edit all the videos. The first runs on Linux and the second runs on Windows, and it would be nice if you have a high-end processor and even better if you add a nice graphics card to that setup. All these in order to optimize the overall usability and rendering times. They are not very difficult to work on, but you probably might want to watch a Tutorial before jumping into any of them.
Very very few people are watching our videos. It is pretty much safe to say we will NOT be able to monetize from YouTube in the short term. But that’s ok. Some good results happened because of all those videos, so it may not be a wasted effort at the end. New connections, more visibility, and a clearer plan for LiftPort future. And personally, I have learned a new skill that may useful, as I said before. Michael has been very busy dealing with both personal and business stuff to the point that some documents and tasks he is supposed to do are long overdue, but to be fair he has worked a lot with no rest and still wasn’t able to complete the 100% of the workload. I don’t blame him because there are things that are out of control that can affect us deeply. Just like the pandemic we are trying to survive. But he is trying hard to overcome the difficulties and somehow remains optimistic. It looks to me that no matter what, he thinks there is no other option but to lead LiftPort to success. I really wish I can find a project that motivates me to that extent, just like him. We have very important events and business proposals coming the next weeks. We will be very busy but I’m glad we’re actively working to improve our situation sooner rather than later. Fabio Three weeks ago, (23 July 2020), the National Space Council – at the White House – issued a fascinating document. “A New Era for Space Exploration and Development.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-New-Era-for-Space-Exploration-and-Development-07-23-2020.pdf In this final video regarding the Vision of the New Era document, we chat about:
For background context, here’s what’s going to the Moon, soon!
And here’s President Trump’s Executive Order:
If you haven’t watched them, already, the six prior Space Policy videos in this series are:
Michael Laine President, LiftPort Group Three weeks ago, (23 July 2020), the National Space Council – at the White House – issued a fascinating document. “A New Era for Space Exploration and Development.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-New-Era-for-Space-Exploration-and-Development-07-23-2020.pdf In this video discussion on the new White House policy, we talk about:
If you haven’t watched them, already, the five prior videos in this series are:
Michael Laine President, LiftPort Group Three weeks ago, (23 July 2020), the National Space Council – at the White House – issued a fascinating document. “A New Era for Space Exploration and Development.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-New-Era-for-Space-Exploration-and-Development-07-23-2020.pdf As we get deeper into the details and the VISION of this policy document from the National Space Council – we’re on page 6 of a 23-page document – we explore the following topics:
And here’s one of the books I referenced about geopolitics and human space flight: “Kennedy and the Race for the Moon” – by Dr. John Logsdon https://www.amazon.com/Kennedy-Palgrave-Studies-History-Technology/dp/1137346493 The four, preamble, videos in this series are: A New Era: The New White House Space Policy - #1 https://youtu.be/fjROHnaTtgc A New Era: Introduction - National Space Council Policy - #2 https://youtu.be/YiPqL9qluEA A New Era: Background & Easter Eggs - #3 https://youtu.be/bMX7WXu_ABQ A New Era: A New Vision - #4.1 https://youtu.be/hD6EibGlvVY Michael Laine President, LiftPort Group Three weeks ago, (23 July 2020), the National Space Council – at the White House – issued a fascinating document. “A New Era for Space Exploration and Development.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-New-Era-for-Space-Exploration-and-Development-07-23-2020.pdf It will influence the commercial, civil, academic, and defense space sectors – for years to come. At LiftPort, we are creating a series of videos focused on ‘space policy.’ We are working through this document – page-at-a-time, a paragraph-at-a-time, and sometimes – word-at-a-time. This detailed analysis matters. The language of this document allows other government officials to adapt programs – for and against – big space concepts. So, the wording matters. Honestly, some folks find this stuff exhausting. It’s not the ‘cool & sexy’ parts of space development. This is the ‘sausage-making’ part of doing the cool stuff. There’s a saying in the space-biz that goes: “You gotta have ‘bucks’ to get to ‘buck rogers.’” Well, to get those ‘bucks,’ you’ve got to have an overarching policy document that rationalizes WHY Congress should authorize the bucks… THIS is that kind of policy document. Money will flow from this policy, money from Defense, and Civil space, money from Research and Development. And money from private investors in Silicon Valley. And, importantly, capital from other regions of the world who are looking for the US to provide leadership and ‘political cover’ for their own efforts and initiatives. And that’s why we’re spending so much time and effort examining the nuance of this policy doc. Because it matters to our long-term program of building the Elevator on the Moon. It matters to everyone else, hoping to move humans to another world. This deep dive into national policy is a regular feature of our Channel and has a dedicated playlist. This stuff matters: all the decisions we make, internally, must be anchored in the reality of Washington DC’s priority matrix. The three, preamble, videos in this series are: A New Era: The New White House Space Policy - #1 https://youtu.be/fjROHnaTtgc A New Era: Introduction - National Space Council Policy - #2 https://youtu.be/YiPqL9qluEA A New Era: Background & Easter Eggs - #3 https://youtu.be/bMX7WXu_ABQ Michael Laine President, LiftPort Group Last weekend I got a little sick. I had some weird symptoms I never had before. It started with what I thought was a severe allergic reaction when I was having a beer after eating some fish that my roommate cooked. He mentioned that my face was a bit flushed, following that I felt rashes and swelling to the point where I started having trouble breathing. Especially since I already knew that in China there is a big problem with counterfeit things; including food and beverages (Just like the imported Chinese beer I had). But since my roommate was just fine after drinking the other bottle, maybe I had food poisoning caused by the fish? I don’t know but, I had food poisoning before (I’m from Peru), and unlike those times, I didn’t feel any nausea or stomach ache.
I drank lots of water after that and was getting ready to go to a hospital just in case. But after 30 min I started feeling a little better. And since I didn’t want to go to a COVID-19 hotspot, I just stayed in my house and rested. The next 2 days I had some headaches but nothing worse than that. By the time I wrote this blog, I felt totally healthy. This week I worked on the Website. There were many things that need to be fixed. I can say that despite the simple interface and easy CMS, Weebly has a lot of limitations. I wonder if migrating to a similar system is really beneficial or not. Anyway, I took a lot of time updating the Blogs’ part, I hope it’s useful for something in the end. Even after that, there are many things we need to work on. The temperature in Tacoma was a little lower this week, and it even rained once. On the hot days, air-conditioning is a nice thing to have. In my house, my landlord sets it for a long time, and it actually makes me feel cold. So, you would see me wearing a sweater if you come to my house this summer. Fabio About a week ago, I was talking to a friend from LiftPort’s Technical Advisory Council about the commercialization of the Moon. We chatted about how the Moon was about to become ‘busy’ with a lot of activity. But it was during that conversation that I realized that I really didn’t have a number; it wasn’t quantified… How busy? What does ‘busy’ mean? Who is going…? You’d think that with all the time and attention I give this sector of commercial Lunar space development, I’d know that answer off the top of my head. I don’t. I can name several (but not all) of the CLPS mission providers, https://www.nasa.gov/content/commercial-lunar-payload-services and I can name each of the big Artemis contractors. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-names-companies-to-develop-human-landers-for-artemis-moon-missions I realized – as close as I am to this field – that I still didn’t have a complete picture of what’s happening, by whom, or when. So, I went looking for it. Fortunately, the European Space Agency has done some of this work. It’s a little dated; about a year old. But it’s the most accurate data set that I could find. There may be some updates, but I’m taking the chart at face value. The link to the article and the infographic is here: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Telecommunications_Integrated_Applications/Who_s_ready_to_serve_the_lunar_missions The graphic expands to a more readable version. I’ve got (a LiftPort-modified version of) this image as the background to my laptop.  I want to point out some important distinctions between the original ESA image, and the updated and edited version that LiftPort created. All we did, was to expand the information provided by ESA on “CPLS Mission 2021” above and added the completed information that was left off the image. It suddenly shows a Moon dominated by American activity… in a way that – even as close as I am to this stuff – I was not aware of.
There are 21 US-led missions. The US has sixteen(!) commercial-focused efforts and five NASA-led programs. Of the whole rest of the world, there are “only” five other commercial missions. (That there are ANY commercial missions still seems a bit of a dream come true!) Institutionally, there are 18 missions disbursed between 11 national space agencies. I find that to be a little staggering! And the last aspect that really excites me about the future of Lunar development is those sub-contractor organizations that will ‘hitch a ride’ with all those Lunar missions. I know that Masten, Intuitive Machines, and Astrobotic are actively pursuing commercial contracts for each of their mission. Of these 21 American missions, each has some sort of capacity for additional commercial, academic, Defense, or civilian cargo. If you just assume 5 organizations – I think it’s MUCH higher than that – per trip, that means over 100 organizations will have assets on the Moon! So, what’s going there? I don’t have data. But I can make a good guess of science packages, sensors for testing Lunar regolith, communications, cameras, and other infrastructure. That initial infrastructure will be the ‘Lego’ bricks to build the future with! For background context, here’s 2 more of our LiftPort videos about “The Future” of commercial space development between 2020-2035: https://youtu.be/0W42h_JUtlU and https://youtu.be/u9qiQfwX4dU #SpaceElevator #ExploreFarther #BusyMoon Michael Laine President, LiftPort Group This 4-day week was a lot more relaxed. We worked on a series of four videos. My editing is getting a lot better and I’m getting faster. I improved the green screen “KEYING” and I feel a lot more satisfied with the result (no green hair or blurry shadows). This software definitely helps on getting more pro editing, but not as impressive as I initially thought. It has so many panels that make me think this was designed to be used in a very large display or 2 monitors at the same time. I’m wondering if it’s really worth the subscription fee. Especially given that my laptop with no video card takes a very long-time rendering, something that didn’t happen on Kdenlive. I’m not sure if I’m comfortable being the bottleneck every time we want to post a video. The software is good and it’s working just fine for our videos, but I might be able to improve it even more. I may look into another good software that is as powerful and renders faster on my computer.
Is this really the standard software for Hollywood movies? If I keep getting better maybe I can be eligible to work at a video-production studio or other media company. I’m turning from programmer to video editor, this is totally unexpected. I never thought my internship in the USA would turn like that. But don’t get me wrong, I’m actually glad I’m learning something new that actually seems very useful during a pandemic that forces most people to work and study from home. The nature of education, work, and entertainment is changing, and I may be preparing to be an active part of that change. We have very few views on our content, even with all those subscribers and promotion to social media. We can justify that saying these sets of policy videos are either too boring or not relevant to most people, but I actually see a pattern. Every video stops getting visited at around 100 views. This means most of the old subscribers are not watching the videos. Perhaps they are not active on YouTube anymore, or this is content they didn’t subscribe for, or simply they just changed their interest and preferences after all those years. Our results are still far from what we initially expected, but I think it is still worth all our effort. Anyway, we must remain perseverant and try to get better and faster. And of course, we have to diversify our content even more and see what works the best. Fabio A few days ago, (23 July 2020), the National Space Council – at the White House – issued a fascinating document. “A New Era for Space Exploration and Development.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-New-Era-for-Space-Exploration-and-Development-07-23-2020.pdf This new policy is significant. This policy will have ripple effects in the future. It will influence the commercial, civil, academic, and defense space sectors – for years to come. This kind of national policy shift is part of the new ‘adventure’ of building systems for space. (They are not usually this big, and they don’t usually come this quickly. There have been 3 big policy documents released in the past month!) Lately, these changes are being considered and deliberated (by some very smart people) over the course of a few months, and then enacted. Honestly, it is both refreshing, and it also requires us to modify our overarching plans. We have posted two other videos on this policy. We will post several more videos; we will deep-dive into the specifics and nuance that such a document deserves. In this post, we will look at the background papers that support and inform this current document. In DC, you don’t usually have a clean-sheet new policy. Most documents are built on layers upon layers of prior rules, papers, or laws. This doc is no different – however, there doesn’t seem to be as thick a layer of supporting docs as most. Perhaps that is one of the reasons it seems ‘new.’ And we will look into some key phrases that might (or might not) be “Easter eggs” – hidden details that have special significance to the writers; hidden details that might give us clues as to the author’s mindset and motivations. This deep dive into national policy will become a regular feature of our Channel. This stuff matters: all the decisions we make, internally, must be anchored in the reality of Washington DC’s priority matrix. One of the reasons we decided to restart the company was – precisely – because of the international attention that the Moon is getting these days. Stay tuned! (In the video, I reference Ken Murphy’s paper on the CisLunar EconoSphere. It’s here: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2027/1 and https://thespacereview.com/article/2033/1) Michael Laine President, LiftPort Group |
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September 2020
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