Per Aspera Ad Astra: From Peru to Space

Shame on me. I should have written about the last events as they happened.

The first, I finally received the university’s comments on my thesis. They are happy about it, but they want a more detailed economical analysis of the launch industry and an additional chapter on the costs regarding the creation of one.

Can do both. The problem is that I have one month, ha! Well, will try. If I can’t do it, I will have to take the course again. Doesn’t matter, though, I want it to be perfect.

The second thing, JL & I had mentioned before we had established contact with a local magazine for making an article on the Space Elevator. This last two weeks we’ve had two additional interviews (one on the technical aspects, the other one on the human side of the LA staff, that is, both of us) and in 15 or so hours the reporter is taking his plane to Seattle for an interview with the Bremerton staff.

He is going to stay 4 days and take note on everything we can show him on the Space Elevator. From all of our stuff to the hectic day by day of the Liftport offices. It’s a pity I can’t be there, argh.

Note. It’s the first time a Latin American media source covers the Space Elevator project with it’s own information and not a media press downloaded from the Internet. At the time being, if you make a search on spanish, you won’t find accurate news, sigh.

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

Yesterday JL & I had an interview with a local magazine for an article on the Space Elevator. We started at 6.30pm and ended at 9pm, although I admit that if we had the time, it would have prolonged even more. Alas, time is always running.

Although the story is still under evaluation by the magazine, I can say that the interview went extraordinary well I am really proud of the work we did. Right now I feel that I can build the whole Elevator with a sheet of paper and a fork.

Tomorrow I have the second presentation of my thesis, and this time it will be the first draft of it. I know it still has some holes that I need to cover, but it is very nice to know that after so long, I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And of course, I will tape it!

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

Today is a Liftport day. I have asked one day vacation at my regular job for a series of Liftport related events. The first one is a nanotech conference at the National University of Engineering. After that I have a meeting with the director of media publishing of another big peruvian university and finally, I will dedicate the rest of the day to the thesis.

HAR!

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

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.

Tomorrow Jorge Luis and I are going to assist to the Sixth Symposium of Space Science and Technology for Development at Peru’s local space agency. The resume of the topics to be presented are:

– Design of scientific rockets
– Design of optronic devices
– Artifical intelligence
– High speed internet for scientific investigation
– Remote sensing
– GPS
– Solar explosions and its influence on health and telecommunications
– Legal aspects of space

The event is from monday to friday, from five to nine, so we will post the most important things as the week goes by.
If you are more interested, you may check the following webpage is: http://www.conida.gob.pe (its in spanish)

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

Hi, for those who don’t know me, my name is Manuel Antonio Cuba. I have worked before with Michael on space related projects and after being two years away arranging personal matters, I am back.

Right now my M-F 9-6 work is at Hewlett-Packard Peru as Technical Specialist for Peru & Bolivia. There, I work two cubicles away from Jorge Luis Revilla who is the other Latin America Research Coordinator (LARC’s) for Liftport. I am an industrial engineer from the University of Lima and currently doing the postgraduate courses for the same career. My thesis is on the space launch industry, and after some initial bumps, it has been finally approved. Now, back to Liftport.

One of Liftport’s robots climbing a ribbon in the night. Source: Liftport Group.

Basically, a LARC is an individual who dedicates its time not only finding contacts interested in the Space Elevator, be it for research or investment, but also has to create space awareness. How are we going to do it? Lot of talks at local schools and universities. That is the first step.

As we progress we will keep you informed. Unfortunately my posts will be, initially, weekly, every Saturday or Sunday. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us

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

Name: Manuel Antonio Cuba
Location: Lima, Peru
Occupation:
1) Technical Specialist for Peru & Bolivia
Image & Printing Group – Hewlett Packard
2) Writer
Background:
Bachelor degree in Industrial Engineering, Universidad of Lima (2000)
Conida (National Aerospace Commision of Research & Development)
1000 Planets
HighLift Systems

Interest in SE: I joined 1KP ranks when I saw Michael’s post in the space.com forum back in August 2001. After a series of good and bad things at 1KP, I went in july 2002 to Bremerton, working 25×8 for the 1st Space Elevator Conference. Unfortunately we didn’t receive the support we expected and accepted my actual post at HP here in Peru in December 2002. Been out of the loop for the last two years paying old debts and publishing my first two science fiction books. Now I can breath a little (visited Liftport in may) and I am doing my thesis on the space launch market for my Master in Industrial Engineering.

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

Today I took a break at work to watch SpaceShipOne’s first flight to space. It was awesome, so awesome that I didn’t pay importance to its spinning (duly noted by my boss, who was also watching).

Luckily, everything went ok and Mike Melvill came back to good ol’ Earth.