Per Aspera Ad Astra: From Peru to Space

On Apr 26, 2005, at 09:01 PM, Manuel Antonio Cuba wrote:

> Hi Mike,
> Short email.
>
> Who owns the tech for elaborating the CNT? Liftport or another company?

we will own some of it, through LP Nanotech. we got the core ideas
from National Renewable Energy Labs (www.nrel.gov) over a year ago. it
took a while to put the whole deal together.

The ribbon is a simple fiberglass construction, interwoven with carbon fibers for strength and support. Source: Liftport Group.

> NREL stands for…?
>
> Who is paying for the plant? Millville? Did it cost the whole
> US$100,000?

millville and cumberland county NJ are splitting it. the plant is not
very big, but more than we need, for now. the $100k will split
between hardware (about $50k), logistics/travel and set-up ($25k) and
staff ($25k). assuming we meet our milestones, a lot more is on its
way. 

>
> Who is the CNT expert right now in Liftport?

nugent, on staff, but the relationship with nrel is key. we are going
to hire another person, i hope, soon.

>
> Do you know of any legal issues on using our actual know-how for
> installing the CNT plant outside US? I remember an export ban on CNT
> for the US.

right, still looking into that. the ‘early answer is no problem’, but
i expect that to chance, so i am proceding slowly. the PROCESS is
probably going to be restricted, the TUBES probably will be o.k.

take care. mjl

>
> Take care,
> Mac
>
>
Michael J. Laine
President
Chief Strategic Officer
LiftPort Group
“The Space Elevator Companies”

245 4th Street
Suite 508
Bremerton WA 98337

360.377.0623 – vx
360.377.2488 – fx
laine@liftport.com
www.liftport.com

For more information about our project, please sign up for our
newsletter (1x/month) at www.liftport.com/lists.php

*This entry was originally posted in Liftport’s blog by Michael Laine.

Last Saturday JL and I attended a conference in the College of Engineers of Peru here in Lima. The theme was on the joint project between the Geophysics Institute of Peru and NASA for launching Perseus, the first Peruvian payload sent to space.

The payload was launched in August-September of 2004 and its objective was to make a series of tests in the atmosphere. At the end it was a success.

Although the theme was quite interesting (I was at a barbeque and had to leave my beer for attending it), the exposition was long and at the end, kind of boring. A pity, really.

Something I have learned about PPT’s and presentations is that you should start on time, don’t overdo the details and make it on 20 minutes, top. If not, you are going to have a sleeping auditorium in front of you.

All of this reminds me that I have to read those books on Feynman, whose ability to explain complex things in a simple way is quite famous.

*This entry was originally posted in Liftport’s blog.

I admit. I am a bit of a time freak. At least when it is regarding business/job matters. On social scale, I am more relaxed. But for me, a 4pm job meeting is a 3.55pm job meeting, not 6 minutes later. And here in Peru is quite difficult. Our society/culture considers it normal to be 45 minutes late for everything.

Sigh.

This week I have seen to sad examples, two of them related to very important people. One arrived 45 minutes late to his meeting, the other one started 45 minutes late his presentation. Is that the image their organizations want? I don’t think so. These people have made a terrible impression, and it won’t be easy for them to correct it. This is what I consider a stupid mistake.

Most of my life I have worked on costumer support and one thing that I always say is that at the support warfront, there is no margin for stupid mistakes. Why? Because, if you have a costumer in front of you (and not in a very nice mood) is because there has been a chain of stupid mistakes or errors from different people related to your organization and now you are the one that has to fix them. You become the suppose-to-be-hero.

At Liftport we have 13 years (+ or -) to build the biggest structure in the history of mankind. Because of it we can’t make stupid mistakes. We are going to make a lot of errors because thank to god we are not perfects (life would be very boring), but we can’t afford to arrive late to anything. Not with that time limit.

Nowadays, thirteen years can pass very, very quickly. We must never forget about it.

*This entry was originally posted in Liftport’s blog.