Week of 6/26 - 7/2
Week of 6/26 - 7/2
Manufacturing talent, nuclear plant construction costs, and the potential of SpaceX's Starship
The US Needs Manufacturing Talent
The US needs semiconductor manufacturing talent, and can’t seem to find enough of what it needs: https://www.protocol.com/enterprise/intel-tsmc-college-student-hiring
We also discuss this in this week’s post on re-shoring manufacturing & intellectual dark matter. Manufacturing is critical for long term innovation and the preservation of knowledge that it takes to build stuff:
Introductory Manufacturing Resources
On the history & importance of manufacturing to national security: read Freedom’s Forge. The US was able to supply the Allies during WWII because, in the years leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and American involvement in the war, it began to prepare its industrial sector for war production.
Will Gregory offered to send info on manufacturing educational resources for beginners, so I DM’d him. He sent this course over:
It’s been great so far! Keep in mind that it was posted in 2014 so some aspects may be outdated - but my guess is that much of the content is similar.
Opportunities in EV Manufacturing
EV Supply Chains are going to be a major deal in the coming years. The world does not have the capacity that it needs to satisfy the demand we’ll have in 2030 for EVs. There are opportunities all over this space: from Lithium mining to battery recycling.
Why Are Nuclear Power Plants So Expensive?
Construction Physics is an A+ newsletter on the business and technology of the construction industry. They recently posted a 3 part series on why nuclear power plants cost so much to produce. The short answer: regulation.
Part 1 and Part 2 dive into the cost structure of a nuclear plant and how rapidly shifting regulations caused construction prices to rise dramatically throughout the second half of the 20th century. Part 3 compares civilian nuclear reactor development to what the Navy has done with nuclear submarines - and finds some lessons about cost control in the production of the US Virginia class attack submarines.
Where Are all the Robots?
This thread makes a compelling case that robotics companies have a hard time fundraising and going to market. The tech isn’t there yet, but perhaps there are more market forces at play.
SpaceX and Starship
I’ve been learning more about the space industry lately, and have found this piece on SpaceX’s Starship by Casey Handmer to be insightful. Sometimes, an innovation comes along that completely changes the economics of an industry. Cloud based software did this is SaaS - suddenly, you could sell a product with zero marginal cost.
If the starship program is successful, it will have a similar impact on space. It will get much cheaper to put stuff on rockets. Costs could move from $10,000/kilogram to something more like $50/kg. NASA and SpaceX customers won’t have to design with such heavy constraints on mass.
Gwyne Shotwell also gave a great interview where she discussed Starship & her career at SpaceX more broadly.