Space exploration and development – more than numbers
Time. Implacable time. Florida. Relentlessly hot and humid August weather, and when not. Twenty years ago this month, a sense of change also hanging thick in the air, a thought this time will be different. Cooler days ahead. The work was over, minus the last of the endless word-smithing for the adrenaline-fueled study to end … Continue reading “Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion…”
For anyone who has seen the Sci-Fi TV series “The Expanse,” it is tempting in these times to take a cue from Amos about “the churn.” If unfamiliar with the story, it’s the oft-used trope of (seemingly) ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. Finding yourself acting “above your pay grade” is still a thing, … Continue reading NASA, beyond “the churn”
I published this piece over at LinkedIn as an "article". Re-posting here. “I canna’ change the laws of physics, Captain!” -Scotty, Chief Engineer in Star Trek You have all seen it, the news about NASA. The layoffs, the plans for budget cuts to science, technology and R&D, and to cancel the SLS and Orion projects … Continue reading Physics, budgets, and Scotty
“Next, seven skinny, bony cows came up out of the river. I have never seen such terrible looking cows anywhere in Egypt. The skinny cows ate the fat ones. But you couldn’t tell it, because these skinny cows were just as skinny as they were before. At once, I woke up.” –Genesis 41: 19-21 On … Continue reading Skinny cows and skinny budgets
Occasionally, I read something so compelling that I must talk about it. If I see a parable relating to the aerospace sector and my experiences in many ways, I must also write about it. (My prior book reviews are here.) I can add “When Genius Fails: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management” to … Continue reading A book review – “When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-term Capital Management”
It is my experience, likely very common, to be asked, “Did you hear about…” some recent news, or on a topic already, someone will say, “I read where…” People will recommend a site or point out a blogger and their valuable takeaways on technology, a company, or happenings in the space sector. The flood of … Continue reading My morning reads
Last Friday, though without reading too much into how bad news is announced on Fridays, NASA canceled its annual cost and schedule symposium. This meeting brings together an assortment of people, mainly NASA and contractor personnel, most of whom spend their days analyzing the cost and time required of complex aerospace projects. This could be … Continue reading Canceled
As an app, the first NASA plan to return astronauts to the Moon, twenty years ago, would have been labeled version 0.3.2.6. A year earlier, the Space Shuttle Columbia and all seven crew were lost during her return to Earth. The days of low Earth orbit as a sole destination were to draw to a … Continue reading Though much is taken, much abides (Transitions Part III).
Space technology and policy on the final frontier It was time. I have published my prior writing in a more unified format as a book – “An engineer’s journey in NASA: Space technology and policy on the final frontier.” It’s difficult to describe the process of looking back and making sense of my years of … Continue reading An engineer’s journey in NASA
If you have been to Grand Central Station in New York City through the mid to late 1970s and as recently as last week, discovering you are in a transport hub where a welcome wander comes easily, the sense is about contrast. The hub peaked in the late 1940s, beginning a decline soon after. The … Continue reading Transitions (Part II), Grand Central, and the Kennedy Space Center VAB
It’s easy to imagine a long list of reasons transitions cause distress and terminal distraction. Evolution passed along in us only so much appetite for risk, novelty, and shifts away from the familiar. Is that mysterious cave calling? Become lunch. Alternately, too much of a taste for stability could prove fatal, too. Leave those well-known … Continue reading Transitions, NASA, and next steps
It is January 13, 1982, and an Air Florida 737 takes off, fighting to climb but hitting the 14th Street bridge here in Washington, DC. Snow had fallen all day, and ground crews deiced the plane, except then an hour went by, and the wings iced over again. The pilot had never flown in snow. … Continue reading Space solar power, the trolley problem, and space technology
Blogging is to writing like getting on a roller coaster is to an astronaut launching to space. In an online world full of click-bait titles like “The one weird trick…” -where the dot-dot-dot is not because the rest of the title didn’t fit, it’s easy to zone out between headlines. Twelve sentences pass for an … Continue reading Rants and reports and what they found…
Compelling storytelling wields the power to draw us in from the first line with a curious character in a peculiar time and place. We instantly hear the voice of Harper Lee’s Scout, simple and innocent, telling us about her brother Jem. A Bradbury beginning, “It was a quiet morning,” tells us things will soon not … Continue reading Space technology, what lies beneath
Talking about technology in the same sentence as stagnation goes down two paths, the one filled with numbers to affirm or deny any problem exists, and the other, all vibe, no data, also to agree with or to downplay any concern. Look at the numbers. It’s obvious. Or, don’t get lost in the graphs. They … Continue reading Technology stagnation, NASA, numbers, and vibes
Zapata Talks NASA 