The LiftPort Work Place

LiftPort is a pretty atypical work environment.  Part of it is just that there are only three of us currently.  The office consists of the CSO and the two interns.  As described before, this is an extremely valuble dynamic for us interns, getting front row seats to the experience of developing a new company.  While this could seem intimidating, it actually is a very fun and collaborative environment.   

Griffin and I were close friends before coming to work which has undoubtedly contributed to the light hearted atmosphere that is present in the LiftPort office.  Michael’s appreciation of our opinion and comments on the work we are producing together has allowed for a very free flowing, open dialogue, work environment that is both productive and fun.  Just as we crack jokes and have our fun, we motivate ourselves to stay focused and get work done. 

But when I wake up in the morning I still say I’m going to “work.  ” Clock in to clock out, we have a goal of production that we hold each other accountable to.  We are trying to build an Elevator on the Moon, of course we are going to be working like crazy.  It’s important to have fun along the way, to stay energized and enthusiastic. 

When I was a freshman in college, my dad and his best friend took me on a climbing trip.  We drove to Mt.  Rainier and were planning on climbing up to Camp Muir, which is about 10,000ft of the 14,000ft summit of Mt.  Rainier.  We had three packs: 40lbs, 50lbs, and 65lbs.  We rotated packs every 2 hours at first, then every hour, then every half hour.  The whole climb took 8 hours or so.  We left the base at sunset and climbed with a full moon in the sky and no clouds. 

I had been in college for almost three months at this point.  I was not, what one might call, in shape at the time.  I did not do what was suggested to me and train for this climbing trip.  It was pretty tough, especially when you had that big pack on.  The final stretch of the climb was this massive snow field that you climb right up through the middle of.  Your surrounded by snow for hundreds of yards on either side, with few points of reference to gauge how far you were walking.  Because it was a clear night, we could see the ridge at the top where the camp was, but there was no way to tell how far away it was.  It felt like the snow field was a treadmill and the camp was not getting closer to us at all. 

That’s how this project feels sometimes, like we keep working and working, but we don’t move.  However, in the snowfield, if we went back and counted our steps, we would have found a lot of foot steps.  That is also true of this project, we have done a huge amount of work since I have started here, just a few months ago.  I think we do a good job of making the work fun, distracting from the treadmill, so that when we look up, the camp at the top of the hill, the Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure, looks a little bit closer.  

​-Jeremy Wain Hirschberg