Per Aspera Ad Astra: From Peru to Space

This is the end my friends. I hope you have enjoyed these 200 posts on how I arrived to ISU, my experience studying the Space Studies Program at Ames and the Master in Space Management in Strasbourg, and how I complemented my career in Information Technology with Communications.

Looking back, it is the best thing I’ve done. Since the day I quit my job in Hewlett-Packard (almost 2 years to the day), this has been a roller coaster that I will never forget.

Just think about it, in little more than a year I have traveled to the USA, South Korea, France, Germany, Russia, Spain and Luxembourg, I have moved almost 10 times, befriended 200+ amazing people, got lost in Daejeon, touched Yuri Gagarin’s capsule, learned how to write a conference paper, learned the intricacies of the telecom sector, partied Russian rock & roll from the 80’s in Moscow, spent a white Christmas in France, worked on a project for the World Bank, traveled around the world, met dozens of astronauts, do a presentation in an international congress, spent two months at NASA Ames Research Center…you get the point.

Central and North America. Source: NASA/GOES Project.

What awaits me now? Well, I have been invited to be part of the Space Committee for Plan Peru 2040, a Strategic Plan created by Peru’s College of Engineers that is to be presented to the new Peruvian Government in 2011. Almost all of the members of the Space Committee are part of the Multidisciplinary Advisory Group, so it is going to be great to continue working with them.

And in the professional realm, I am returning to Luxembourg to work in a new and exciting project in telecommunications. I really look forward to go back to work, see my friends from SES and enjoy Lux City.

Finally, I plan to travel more, a lot more. This year has been quite intense for me (as my classmates have witnessed), so as soon I finish moving (again), Europe awaits me.

And the solar system too.

Take care!

Strasbourg, October 31st 2010

Arellano Marketing is a Peruvian marketing company dedicated to research and consulting. They just launched their view of how Peru’s population is segmented (only in Spanish). Very, very interesting.

Unfortunately political parties in Peru are still discussing about left and right, class struggle and other 19th century stuff.

In brief, Peru is not divided by socio-economical classes like A, B, C, D & E, but by 6 life styles: sophisticated, progressive, modern, adapted, conservative and resigned. And, within each lifestyle, there are people with a wide spectrum of income:

Peruvian lifestyles vs income spectrum. Source: Arellano Marketing.

In my experience, it is true. I’ve seen Peru evolve from closed-economy socialism to free market democracy. Economic progress has transformed the country, shattering our stagnated society and democratising opportunities.

This video from Oxford Learning Lab shows one of the pillars of my family’s chocolate startup: proper market segmentation and how important it is to understand the needs of each segment.

Engineers clean James Webb’s mirror with carbon dioxide snow. Source: NASA

Initial results demonstrated it was a good strategy. Alas, events unfolded in such a way I couldn’t see the long term results; who knows, maybe one day I’ll be back to the world of chocolate. In the meantime I am using it for the market analysis of my internship report.

Time flies! The second week is already over and in only ten more weeks I will be traveling back to Strasbourg for my internship presentation. Luckily the weather here in Luxembourg is improving, but they tell me it is always like that, some days of sun followed by many days of rain. I must say that I like it, especially thunders. The only thunders I heard in Lima were the terrorist bombs during the 80’s and 90’s, so obviously I prefer nature’s demonstration of power.

Early Bird satellite. Source: NASA.

This week I continued with my project and even had the opportunity to relate things I saw in our professional visit to Google and the work done through the SSP Team Project. And even though I miss my friends and the ISU environment, it is nice to be in a corporation after so long.

I’ll better enjoy it as much as I can for in 3 months I am starting my MBA!

Due to a public holiday, the first week of my internship was only four-days, which I don’t like. Why? Four-day working weeks means that in four days you have to do what takes five days.

Fortunately the transition to SES was rather quickly. HR introduced me to the team and afterwards I received a crash course on the project I was going to work on.

It is really interesting; but the best of all is that I will be able to use my experience from HP, My Babelfish, and the knowledge gained at the International Space University, both during the Space Studies Program at NASA Ames and the Master in Space Management in Strasbourg.

Early morning sunrise over the Grand Canyon. Source: NASA.

Besides work, we are officially established in Luxembourg. We paid the landlord, registered in the commune and bought the bus/train pass. And thanks to Elodie (ISU alumni working in SES Associate Program) we will not have to spend 2 hours to get to SES (two buses + train).

Still, I will miss the train. In Peru it represents a minuscule percentage of public transport. For reasons beyond my comprehension, our political leaders dismissed their importance.

Although it is changing, it is too late. According to Proexpansion, Peru losses USD 6.6 billion per year due to inefficiencies caused by our chaotic traffic.

My good friend Martin Canales, whom I met last year when he went to Peru, has written a small biography on his experience in the Space Industry. The links (only available in Spanish) are:

Part I – Part II – Part III – Part IV

It is a nice recollection which I recommend to every Peruvian who wishes to become a better professional and help in the socio-economic development of his country.

International Space Station. Source: NASA.

While looking for references for my IAF Youth Grant Program 2009 report on the International Astronautical Congress in Korea, I found these numbers for the period 2000 – 2004 (unfortunately there is no updated data):

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We need to change this. Thankfully, there are initiatives within the government and private sector to change this situation.

Module 2 exam is over! I think I did quite well, better than SSP, so I am looking forward the results (even though I spent a lot of time watching the remake of Battlestar Galactica).

Shuttle Enterprise free flight. Source: NASA.

After the exam, we were free to roam, so on Sunday I went to visit Vincent’s family at Lutzelhouse. They spoiled me A LOT with wine, cheese and tons of food. I am looking forward spending Christmas with them.

On Monday we had the microgravity workshop I didn’t take during SSP09. It has been a long time since I did an experiment, so I enjoyed it.

Lectures for this week were focused on corporate law, intellectual property, patent law, and space legislation. On friday, we visited EADS Astrium on Friday. Great professional visit. Still, I am looking forward the next visit: SES.

Finally, I chose my personal assignment: Telecom satellite lifetimes with Dr. Peeters. My decision was based on my experience at Hewlett-Packard and SES’ interest on this topic.

Week 7 was focused on best practices in project management, career planning and Team Project. During career planning I met Prof. Dr. Bernd Madauss, who worked several years at SES Astra. He gave me great advice on how to improve my CV.

In the field of Team Project, Thursday was a disaster. We asked the faculty to preview our Friday’s presentation and the feedback was quite negative. Therefore we had to redo the presentation in less than 8 hours. On Friday things went much, much better. Tip for future classes, sleep before a presentation!

In the lighter side of things, I sent this ultimatum to the class (if you don’t understand, Google guinea pigs south park):

Earthlings,

I just washed enough dishes to supply the Grand Armee during the Napoleonic Wars (including the 100 days). If you don’t wash your dishes from now on, the Sacred Inca Spirits of the Mountains (Apus) will curse you by removing your local Peruvian flute band. So, if you are attacked by a giant Guinea Pig on your way home, don’t say you were not warned.

Enjoy your evening!
Macc

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if this email affects your past/present/future life(s).