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

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

Last Thursday, (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.  We are shifting our production schedule regarding the Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure to share it with our community.  This kind of national policy shift is part of the new ‘adventure’ of building systems for space. 
 
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, occasionally, on our overarching plans.
 
In the case of this new policy, it has wide-ranging implications. 
 
Policy topics of this video include:

• Low Earth Orbit Commercialization
• Industrial Scale Commercial Space Activities
• Changing Definition of Leadership
• Multi-Agency Governmental Roles in Space

 
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!

Michael Laine
President, LiftPort Group

Yesterday, (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 so significant that we are shifting our regular production schedule regarding the Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure to share it with our community.  This kind of national policy shift is part of the new ‘adventure’ of building systems for space.  Things happen, more quickly, now.  It used to take several years for substantive shifts in national policy to work its way down to our level.  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, occasionally, on our overarching plans.
 
In the case of this new policy, it has wide-ranging implications.  This policy will not only affect the United States, and our civil, Defense, and commercial space sector, I believe it will also have impacts on the global space community.  There is some new stuff here that will have ripple effects far into the future. 
 
Over the weekend, we will dissect this 23-page document and come back, Monday, with some key takeaways. 
 
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!
​
Michael Laine
President, LiftPort Group

Since last week, we’ve been coming to the office at 7:00 am. I like that we can post videos early and for some reason, it feels like we are more productive. On the other hand, I have been sleeping fewer hours and by Friday I did not feel productive any more. I really have to re-program my body to sleep earlier, otherwise, this plan won’t work on me.

This week I have been comfortably using both Linux Mint and Windows, on different partitions. I solved most of the problems but sadly It looks like my Bluetooth mouse has to be unpaired and paired to the laptop every time I change OS. It’s not so difficult but it takes some time. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with my setup.

I’m using a more advanced video editing software designed for Windows. It’s definitely more powerful than Kdenlive but it is not as intuitive as I hoped. Not that difficult either, I just have to get used to the new interface. I like that it has so many good features but I hate the very long rendering time. I still can change to other software but I will need a very good reason for that, since this one may be one of the best ones out there.

Also, being that we didn’t film more than 2 videos this week, I had the time to work on accounting. I basically finished sorting by year but I know I may have to go back and organize it even more.
​
Michael had a lot of meetings this week. Apparently, many things are happening around the space industry. Could this be the early stage of a global boom or bubble, just like in IT? That would be interesting, we’ll see.

​Fabio

The future is murky.  How realistic is it to try to describe a potential future in space?  (Just a year ago… how many of you imagined that the world would be encircled by a virus?)  So, trying to decide how the future will unfold over the next 15 years is challenging.  In this video, LiftPort seeks to showcase who the players are and what they are aiming at.  We list the six most significant elements of the newly developing cislunar EconoSphere, and we try to describe, in chronological sequence, how these entwined and mutually supporting technologies will unfold.
 
In order, they are:

1. Launch, Communications, and Earth Observations
2. In-Space Transit
3. Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure
4. Space Stations
5. Mining + Manufacturing
6. Space-Based Solar Power (And energy!)

 
This is the second of two parts of this video.

Michael Laine
President, LiftPort Group

​It’s been several years since we posted videos regularly.  A LOT has changed since then. We’re back in business, and we’re doing some terrific work!  Please join us on this journey!  There is a bold adventure ahead of us; we’d like to share our progress, to share our defeats and our wins, we’d like to share the story of where we’ve been, where we’re going, and what we’re doing now.
 
We’re committing to 100 videos!  These videos will cover a range of topics: hardware of the Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure and many of the components, the highs and lows of our LiftPort history, and how we think the future of humanity will unfold as the world develops infrastructure for the cislunar EconoSphere.  We will delve into fiction and non-fiction books that help us learn what we need to learn – to build a better Elevator.  We will explore pop culture, space commercialization, and we’ll interview and meet interesting people that are involved with US Space Force, International Space University, and some of LiftPort’s Technical Advisory Council.   
 
Together, we will create the future.  Together, we’ll prove that this dream can become a reality; that new reality will change the world!  Together, we’ll discover the problems and the solutions toward building
“The biggest thing, ever!”

Michael Laine
President, LiftPort Group

We got some brand-new equipment delivered. All for the purpose of improving our video quality. We now have less excuses to deliver something good to our audience.

We applied new corrections and made public most of our videos. It seems reception wasn’t as bad as I initially thought. But still, very few people are watching our videos even after promoting through social media and that’s probably only the all-time fans. What can be the problem? Well, first of all, I think there are not too many people interested in the space as we would like. It certainly is getting on the news a lot more frequently, but still is a small target audience compared to other fields. Also, our social media network is still small. We need more new fans! Is our content boring or too long? Is our video quality so bad that is actually a deterrent for new viewers?  I don’t know. I really wish to get some feedback through the comments section. So far, someone complained about the audio being annoying because of the buzz, but we might have corrected that already.

So, what if we actually drag new people not only to our channel but to this field? In my opinion, that would be an awesome accomplishment! What do we need for that? I’m not sure. I feel like this can be nearly impossible, but worth trying. At this point, it is very likely our content isn’t adequate for zero-knowledge-of-space people. I will have to deeply think about this.
​
However, not everything is bad news. We might have created a specialty network. We have received some proposals and support from interesting people. That can be even more beneficial than our original plan. We just have to remain optimist and make our best effort to evolve as a company, whatever our path is.

​Fabio

This week was lots of fun. We made a small trip to Oregon and enjoyed a day tubing down the River. We started the journey inflating the tubes with our own mouths because we had no automatic air pump.

Then we walked down the river and jumped into the water. Water was warm-cold and it wasn’t a problem before the 3rd hour into the water. I felt really cold by the end of our course. Luckily, I didn’t get sick after that. After a day I realized, some parts of my body were burnt from the sun exposure and had some small bruises from bumping into rocks. Even considering that, it was a great experience. I would love to repeat it but only if the time on the water is reduced to half of that.

About the new media company, we have several videos on hold on the YouTube channel, just waiting for final approval and social media updates. We did make a lot of corrections, but hey that’s part of the learning process. Hopefully, we’ll get a good audience reception.

I’m definitely changing my video editing software though. I’m really curious what features are better on Adobe. Is it really a super advanced professional environment? We’ll see. It’s a big deal since I migrated to Linux and I would have to go back to Windows or partition my already small SSD. It’s probably a good idea to just partition it, so I get both OS for whenever I need it. But to be honest, I’m a little disappointed of Ubuntu. I thought It was one of the most stable versions of Linux out there. And that’s not my case, at least not in my laptop. At this point I’m really curious about macOS, though. Would it be better than Ubuntu? Better than Windows? Better than both? To try that in a good way, I guess I would have to pay the “Apple price”, so It won’t be anytime soon. Anyway, that’s not relevant at this moment.
​
By the end of this week, after making public some of our videos, we had several hundred views. It’s a decent result but our goal is still far from accomplishment. We just have to remain positive and aim to an even higher video quality.

​Fabio