Real-Life Math
Space marketers must be able to understand the technology that engineers are designing, so learning some engineering and physics will definitely help on the job. But most of the time, space marketers use math to calculate how much it will cost a company to design and create a project.
You are with a company that is building a flood-monitoring project for China. You have to write up a proposal to send to the Chinese government to tell them how much the entire project will cost. Use the lists below to calculate the entire cost of the project.
Labor Costs
Each person will be working for 20 days per month, for 12 months
Project manager earns: $500 per day
2 senior engineers each earn: $500 per day
10 mid-level engineers each earn: $400 per day
2 project assistants each earn: $250 per day
3 support people each earn: $300 per day
Computer rental for 12 engineers for 12 months worth of costs: $25 per engineer per day
Building rental and office space costs: $829,800
Non-Labor Costs
Purchased equipment: $2,500,000
Overseas agent fee: $500,000
Financing fee: $400,000
Subcontracts: $1,000,000
You will need to set aside extra money just in case something goes wrong, or in case the estimates for the job weren't accurate. This is called a contingency fee.
Contingency fee = 10 percent of labor costs and 10 percent of non-labor costs
You also have to calculate how much you will charge to complete this project:
Your fee is 48 percent of the total labor costs
Now figure out how much the entire project will cost by adding up:
Labor costs
Non-labor costs
Contingency fee
Your fee
One last thing. Customers always want prices in U.S. dollars. This total is in Canadian dollars. Using an exchange rate of $0.74 Cdn to $1 US, figure out the cost in American dollars.