Reaching My Own Star

Heresy and Discovery

2009-04-01T13:29:00.004-04:00

I've been reading some interesting articles, essays, and books recently in order to better understand how we discover new things. One of the most interesting essays I read was written by the esteemed Freeman Dyson, titled Heretical Thoughts about Science and Society. This essay is written primarily from the perspective of the global warming issue. Dyson has subsequently gotten a good deal of contempt from the general public for some of his statements, which ironically further emphasizes the real point he makes. While I don't necessarily agree with his opinions on climatology, I do agree that our society is in great need of people who are willing to be subjective and remind ourselves that we might actually be wrong on some things.

It's very interesting to compare the climate change issue currently occupying the scientific collective mind to an event some 60 years ago that shocked the geology world. I'm currently reading The Incomplete Guide to the Art of Discovery written by Jack Oliver, a geophysicist who was involved with the discovery of plate tectonics. Before World War II, the general consensus among the experts in crustal geology was that the geology of the continents was created by the crust shrinking as the earth cooled. This theory was indeed a consensus-- nearly every geologist at the time truly believed the earth's crust was fixed, and had the evidence to back it up. Then after the war, when young men with a new perspective on life returned home picked up the science baton, they discovered the ocean floor. Prior to this time, there was almost nothing known about it, so they were simply exploring something that had never been seen before, not knowing what it would be like or what to expect. Strangely enough, they discovered a huge rift in the crust that extended snake-like all around the earth-- the general consensus was indeed completely wrong. One event spurred a huge growth in our knowledge about the earth's geology.

Don't take this discussion to say that I don't believe in "global warming". Rather, I'd like to make a prediction. I believe that the climate change issue will do for Meteorology and Atmospheric Science what continental drift did for Geology and Earth Science. We really don't have a very good understanding of the way the atmosphere works. (Don't believe me? You'd take your weatherman's word over mine?) The new political environment and public focus on climate change, however, will allow scientists the opportunity to explore some of this uncharted territory, and the result is inevitably going to turn the climatology world on its head.

What will we find as a result? I don't know. The consensus may end up being right on this one, it may not. It really doesn't much matter, in the end. The whole purpose of science is to learn new things; to understand and build our knowledge. That's guaranteed to happen, as long as scientists are able to keep their pride in check. I find it very interesting to note that while espousing the need for openness and curiosity to make great discoveries, Oliver openly rejects the possibility of great discoveries coming from a thorough study of the earth's core (see chapter 1), simply because he doesn't believe anything useful will come of it. After all, "exploration of the earth's deeper interior...can hardly be expected to have the same impact on society as will understanding of the crust, the home and the source of livelihood for humans." That's irony. It seems the loudest voices in the scientific world, on whatever side you look, are easily blinded to the possibilities in any unexplored realm other than that which interests them particularly. That goes for Dr. Dyson, as well, with all due respect to a great and admirable physicist.

I applaud Dysonian heresy in science. I abhore pride. I hope we can strike the right balance in this endeavor.

Atlantis to the Pad

2009-03-28T01:28:00.002-04:00

Atlantis will be rolling out next Tuesday. It's exciting to think this is announced when Discovery doesn't even return home until tomorrow!

This Atlantis launch is the one I'm planning to be in Florida to see (Endeavour is scheduled to go up that week too), so I'll try to remember to keep the blog updated a little better for this mission and my experiences in Florida.

Pratt & Whitney do it again

2009-02-21T14:09:00.003-05:00

The third round test for the new CECE engine has been completed successfully. For those who aren't aware, the CECE (common extensible cryogenic engine) is being developed by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne to learn how to perfect the engines used to land on the moon. So far, this project has been very productive, and they've exceeded the design specifications. This is quite the engine, and to tell you the truth I wouldn't mind giving it a ride one bit!

And yes, I know I failed to finish reporting on AGU last year. Some day maybe I'll have this blog more at the front of my mind...

AGU Fall Meeting, Day 2

2008-12-16T23:22:00.004-05:00

I took a bit of a relaxed approach to the meeting today, and managed to see some great presentations in fields outside of my own. I first attended a lecture by George Ludwig, one of the men who worked with James van Allen on the Explorer rockets, where he described some of what happened in the development of the beginnings of the space program. The historical aspect of science has always fascinated me, and sometimes the romance of that kind of research seems lost in today's massive research group projects.

I also attended this year's Franklin lecture, given by Martin Uman, who described some of the lightning experiments he's been working on in Florida. He had some great videos of the experiments, of course, and I thought it was fun to observe what most people would call (perhaps mistakenly) ball lightning. This phenomenon is really weird, and all kinds of wild theories exist to explain it, including something to do with black holes (take a look on wikipedia).

I took the afternoon off, but made it back in time to attend the Public Affairs section, where they discussed some of the challenges the next Presidency of the United States will have to face. It seems odd to me that everyone places a lot of blame on the last 8 years specifically, though one presenter did comment that to be fair a lot of the problems we have between government and science started a lot earlier than that. While I think the goals they are setting for our government are admirable, I also think we need to reform our own field some as well. It's great to push for protection for whistle blowers, but what about protection for scientists that have a different opinion? It's difficult to get any respect as a scientist if you hold unpopular opinions about some of the current hot topics. Without respect from our colleagues, we have a hard time getting anything we've learned heard by them. We must not ostracize people for holding different ideas that what's pushed by the masses. Science is as prone to pride and popularity as any field, I'm afraid.

AGU Fall Meeting, Day 1

2008-12-15T19:13:00.005-05:00

I've arrived in San Francisco for the 2008 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. This is by far the largest meeting I've ever attended, and it's a little bit intimidating to be here around so many people. It is very exciting, though, and it's a lot of fun to have a chance to hear talks given in fields other than Physics.

San Francisco is a great place, very different from San Diego. I'm looking forward to being able to take some time later on and explore the area a little bit.

I've decided to post every day this week, and give a little highlight of what's going on here. Today's highlight is the Phoenix Mars Lander. This year's Shoemaker Lecture (a special lecture given in the field of planetary science) was presented by Peter Smith from the University of Arizona, the principle investigator over the Phoenix project. Peter is a very engaging speaker, and gave an excellent overview of how Phoenix came about and what it has accomplished. It was exciting to see the first proof of water ice on Mars in the news. It was even better to hear the first hand account, and understand how they accomplished the discovery and what went into being certain what they had was indeed water.

The terrain that Phoenix landed in is very interesting. The best word to describe it is hummocky. The hummocks that appear in the northern regions of Mars were predicted to be caused by an ice-table underneath, and evidence for that was provided by the Odyssey mission in 2003. The hummocks are not very deep, and so landing there with thrusters (much like the LEMs in the Apollo days) was not too difficult. That's not to say the accomplishment was not a great feat. Mars is notoriously difficult for landings. Another interesting fact presented was that the thrusters had cleared away a lot of the soil under the lander, revealing very large patches of what looked like ice. This wasn't publicized, as they wanted proof first, but looking at the images they have of the ground underneath the lander, there's no question about it. It seems a number of the upcoming missions have taken the thruster technology used for Phoenix and implemented it in their own designs, because it worked so well.

Phoenix has also been able to identify CO2 in its mass spectrometers. That would not be such a big deal, given the atmosphere of Mars, except that it was baked out of the soil samples. This might be evidence for organics, but there's a great deal of work the team would like to do before they suggest that's really what we're seeing there.

There are a lot of other great science aspects that they've been able to discover, and there were strong hints of some of the reports that will likely be released in the next few months. More information has been promised to be posted by the Phoenix team later today.

Phoenix is currently off-line, due to the cold and the dark of the northern Martian winter. In keeping with the team's Disney theme for the various parts of the mission, it's currently in "Sleeping Beauty" mode. Hopefully, sometime next spring, the Prince will come and we'll see some more great things come from this phenomenal project!

Huntsville Photos

2008-11-14T17:50:00.008-05:00

As promised, here are a few photos from my trip to Huntsville. It's really a spectacular sight to stand underneath a Saturn V like this. Keep in mind, the Ares V will actually be another 20 feet taller (~380' total height) than the Saturn V, so it'll be even more impressive to see.

The towering rocket really stands out on the skyline in Huntsville, and is a great thing to see coming around the bend on the interstate.

And finally, a mock-up of the new Orion capsule, which I'll be trained to use. This is obviously a throw-back to the Apollo days, but the capsule itself is surprisingly large. If you ever have a chance to go to Huntsville, you can actually stand underneath the capsule and put your head inside to see roughly the layout of the systems inside the capsule. Notice also there are a number of windows all around the capsule. This is a very exciting system, and I'll be certain to keep an update on the progress on both Ares and Orion.

News Bits

2008-11-14T13:03:00.003-05:00

A few noteworthy things happening for the space program:

Hubble has for the very first time taken a picture of a planet orbiting another star! This planet is probably bigger than Jupiter, but no larger than 3x its size, and orbits the star Formalhut in the constellation Pisces Australis.

The Ares I-X parts have arrived at Kennedy Space Center. This will be the first test flight of the new Ares manned rocket, and is scheduled for some time next Summer. Hopefully this test will give us what we need to solve some of the potential problems on the table right now, such as the awful vibrations we get out of the current SRB configuration.

Finally, STS-126 launches this evening at 7:55 pm (ET). Be sure to turn on NASA TV and watch!

Upcoming Shuttle Launch: STS-126

2008-11-03T15:09:00.005-05:00

Keep your eyes on the next launch, coming on the 14th of the month. This mission is one of the biggest steps on the ISS construction. In mission commander Chris Ferguson's own words, “We’re taking a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house and turning it into a five-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a gym.” It won't be long before we've doubled the normal crew on the station, and we can start really using it the way it was meant to be used.

Home from Huntsville

2008-11-03T14:56:00.002-05:00

This past week I was in Huntsville, Alabama for a conference on Plasmas and Magnetic Boundaries. It was a really great experience, and I learned a lot. I even proved to myself I could go longer than a day at one of these and still pay attention now-- though admittedly I'm only up to a day and a half. It's surprising how difficult it is to pick up on so much information during the week. We did get a great deal accomplished, and some of the results of the conference even appeared on Slashdot. Here's a link to the referenced article.

Magnetic Reconnection was one of the primary topics of interest at the conference this year, though a few other interesting things were brought up. In particular, a couple of presentations were made on some results from the neutral atom detectors on the two STEREO spacecraft: it seems there is a very localized source of neutral atoms at the nose of the heliopause. The heliopause is essentially the boundary between our sun's magnetic field and its accompanying solar wind with interstellar space, roughly 100 AU away from the earth (that's 100 times the distance from the sun to the earth). There is even some speculation this comes from a point source, but to be sure we're waiting on the initial results from IBEX that will become available sometime next year. Curiously enough, the two Voyager probes are headed that direction-- one directly into the peak of the source, and the other on the far edge. They should be able to give us more information before they drift off from us completely.

The highlight of the week for me was having the banquet dinner at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. This is the place where they hold Space Camp-- which I never attended, unfortunately. They have a complete Saturn V rocket standing upright at the entrance to the facility, and another laying on its side indoors like the one at Johnson Space Center. It's one thing to see it hanging above you like that, but it was a completely different feeling to stand underneath one pointing straight up in the air; this thing is a monster, and would have been a lot of fun to ride. Having dinner directly underneath the service module inside was fun, but I'd have passed it up for a chance to ride one myself. I'll post a couple of photos I took while I was there in a while.

The Long Gap

2008-10-20T16:06:00.004-04:00

I can hardly believe how much time has passed since I last posted. A lot has happened since March, both for me and for the space program.

For me, the biggest news is that I successfully passed the Qualifying Exam at UMD! This exam was a big deal to me, as everyone around me at the time was (painfully) aware. Our whole class really impressed the department, though, and they passed nearly all of us. Passing the exam allows me to continue on with the last couple of steps to candidacy-- the major step now is to publish in a peer-reviewed journal. I spent a good deal of time last year working on a publication based on my Master's work, and it's high time I polish that up and get it submitted. If accepted, it may count for that requirement as well, putting me well on my way to earning a Ph.D.

Over the past few months, I was also able to meet a few Astronauts, including Captain Ken Reightler and Paul Richards. I had a great conversation with each of these good men, and both had some great points for me to think about. Becoming an Astronaut isn't the easiest thing to do-- it takes a lot of courage and patience. I find it always helps just to be able to say hello to those who precede us, just to buoy up those emotions. I also had a chat with Dr. Mike Gruntman, who says I should pick up SCUBA diving and rock climbing. I think I can live with that kind of advice, too.

That brings up the other big thing happening to me right now: I met Dr. Gruntman at a meeting just before the successful launch of IBEX on Sunday. I'll have an opportunity in helping with the data analysis in a few months when IBEX starts sending us the good stuff it was built for.

As for the space program, unfortunately the launch of STS-125 was delayed until next spring. I was planning on being at this launch with my brother, but we'll have to wait for another chance. In a way, the delay was a blessing, as it allows the Hubble team to make better repairs and get Hubble to give us more spectacular images. It does mean, however, that the Ares I-X flight will likely be delayed. So with all the delays, why do I feel so optimistic? It's hard to explain; I just feel excited for the incredible missions on schedule and the direction NASA is pushing human spaceflight. LRO will be going up in the near future (I actually saw LRO in the assembly building at Goddard recently) and preparing us for the next moon landing. In spite of the delay, the Ares team is pressing forward, and we should have some news soon about the continued development of the Orion system. This is an incredible time to be close to the space program, and it's a wonderful feeling to be an active part of it, regardless of the size of my own role right now.

Launch preparation

2008-03-07T10:08:00.002-05:00

For those who are unaware, Endeavor is currently scheduled to launch on the 11th of March. NASA's website currently says launch is scheduled for 2:28 am-- I don't know if the am is a typo or not. If not, I probably won't see this one. I'm way to tired to be up at that time of day, and next week I have midterms in both of my classes. In fact, come to think of it, the 11th is the first one of them... uh oh.

Onward!

2008-02-25T11:15:00.005-05:00

It seems like this is really quick off of the recent return of Atlantis, but Endeavor is on the pad and ready to go! The next launch is right around mid-March, and the crew has finished all their testing and preparation. STS-123 is bringing the Japanese Kibo laboratory up, as well as Canadarm's latest beauty, the two-armed Dextre.

For those who have asked me about the ISS being large enough to see its shape from earth yet, you might enjoy the film Atlantis took after undocking.

STS-122 Fly-around

Farther Along

2008-02-25T11:07:00.003-05:00

It's high time I start regularly posting here again. My proposal is all but complete, and will be submitted this week. It'll be a relief to have that submitted and be able to start thinking about actual research work again.

I've developed an interesting idea on how to simulate a complete system with grids in it accommodating restrictions in RAM. Essentially, it'll require doing some coding of my own, and will solve the equations for only sections at a time. Reads and Writes to a hard drive typically slow things down substantially, but not enough to be a problem for the type of system I'm dealing with. This will help me get high resolution meshes around the grids so that we can see the actual grid effects, while leaving a low resolution mesh in the empty spaces where everything is pretty much linear. It might take a few hours to do a mesh refining, but it would allow us to visualize not just a grid's effect, but also interactions between multiple grids.

There are a couple of ideas floating around here at Goddard that will benefit from this: we'll be able to simulate an entire Faraday Cup system (This type of cup is substantively different from the simple copper cup I used at BYU) and it will also allow us to examine effects of true ion optics. (Someone here has suggested the idea of using multiple converging and diverging ion lenses to collimate higher energy ions with less voltage-- very useful if we can do it without huge losses in the grids!) Once I have my proposal submitted, I'm going to start learning how to integrate my code with SimIon, or at least how to format a .pa file outside of SimIon.

Keeping a promise

2008-01-24T13:52:00.001-05:00

As promised, I'm posting an update on my research progress. The proposal for the project has been submitted to NASA and awaits review. We feel confident it will go through and we'll be able to continue working on the idea, but it may be a while before we get an answer. In the mean time, I'm working on a proposal for the NASA GSRP fellowship. The proposal is shaping up nicely, and I just learned today the deadline has been extended to March 1. That's good news for me-- more time to get the proposal cleaned up. The proposal itself is looking pretty good, though there are some questions that still need to be cleared up. I haven't heard back from the coordinators for the application process, so I'll be trying to communicate with some of them in the near future.

School is beginning again next week, and I'm taking the second half of Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics. Both should be challenging courses, and I'm looking forward to them. I also received my TA assignment last night, and I'll be teaching a discussion section to accompany a course titled:

PHYS105 Physics for Decision Makers: The Global Energy Crisis

In this marquee course, we will take a scientific perspective to study questions related to the global energy crisis: What is energy? What are the basic laws of thermodynamics, and how do they constrain our understanding of energy production? How is electricity produced and distributed? What is a greenhouse gas? With an understanding of these facts, we will then address more difficult questions. What options exist for addressing global warming? This course will give tomorrow's decision makers the basic tools needed to make informed, rational choices about the world's future energy policy. The course is aimed at the non-sciencemajor.

Since this is a pretty volatile topic in our political field right now, and especially since we're seeing an unsual interst on the part of college-age kids in politics this year, I think we can expect this class to be very interesting. The students will all likely be keenly interested in the topic, which should lead to some fascinating discussions. I'll post ideas and thoughts that result from what the students have to say.

All in all, it's looking to be a great semester! I'll also be preparing to get my pilot's license, and may be moving to a place closer to campus in a few months, so it won't be without it's rough moments, nor it's really exciting moments. I'll also begin filling out the Astronaut applications soon, to make sure it's finished in time for their deadlines. Stay tuned for that story at a later time!

More Space Policy

2008-01-24T13:44:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, I still haven't heard anything from any of the Presidential candidates other than a "Please give me money!" I did get an interesting email from Chelsea Clinton-- apparently I've been invited to participate in a contest:

"I'm definitely planning on being at the next debate. Would you like to join me?"

Does this mean I've been asked out by a Clinton? Wierd.

Anyway, I also discoverd that the Clinton and Obama campaigns have both recently released a statement for their respective platforms regarding space policy. The information is available here:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4237347.html

Both seem to be favorable to the space program. I'll leave it to you to decide if you prefer one to the other. Let's hope we hear something from some of the Republicans in the near future!

Thank you Senator Edwards!

2008-01-15T18:08:00.000-05:00

Well, I've neglected my blog for too long. Christmas was wonderful. I'm sad the shuttle launch was delayed, but my break was good, and probably too good for me. I'm having a tough time getting back to work! =)

I'll post an update on my work soon, but I have to make a political posting today. Over the break I sent this question to the Clinton, Obama, and Romney campaigns. (I also tried to send it to McCain's campaign, but couldn't find any way to send emails to him via his website):
----------

I believe any nation or culture has always needed some goal or project that unifies them– WWII unified our nation and brought us out of difficult financial situations because the American people banded together to accomplish something for good. The space program did that more recently, and also showed another incredible feat: it unified the entire world, who watched eagerly as Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, and later as we struggled to return the Apollo 13 astronauts to earth. The International Space Station is perhaps the biggest collaboration between nations, and I believe the space program could possibly be the most effective means of generating peace and good will between nations in the world.

I applaud the number of candidates that have suggested building a project like the Apollo moon landings to solve our energy issues, but at the same time I have not heard many candidates even mention the space program itself.

A recent survey found that most people believe that NASA's budget is comparable to the Department of Defense's, however the actual budget is quite small, and possibly not enough to really accomplish the wonderful things they are engaged in.

Can you tell me what you believe is the role of America in Space Exploration, and how you would support NASA and private endeavors in space?

----------

So far, the reaction has been nothing from the Romney campaign, an "I'm sorry there are so many emails, we'll get to yours if we can" from the Obama campaign with a "please send us some cash", and a "Thanks for offering your support to my campaign! Please donate" numerous times from the Clinton campaign.

Needless to say, I've been very disappointed in the lack of reaction, though not very surprised.
It's easy for politicians to give lip service to supporting and listening to the common people, but honestly most people are either drowned out or ignored. I'll leave it to the reader to decide which candidate is taking which approach.

A wonderful change happened today, though. CNN's Wolf Blitzer has asked people to post questions they'd like asked to the Democratic candidates. Though there are over 2,000 posts, I posted my question as well. You can see it at http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/11/blitzer-what-should-i-ask-the-democrats-in-south-carolina/

just search for David, Columbia MD to find my posting. You'll note I mentioned there that I would be sending it to the Edwards campaign today. I did, in fact, and did so only a few hours ago, and got a response just now. Here is the campaign's response in full:
----------

Dear David,

Thank you for writing John Edwards about space exploration. We appreciate that you took the time to share your thoughts and concerns with us. We enjoy hearing from people all over the country about the issues that are important to them.

Senator Edwards is a strong supporter of our space program. It reflects the best of the American spirit of optimism, discovery and progress.

We need a balanced space and aeronautics program. We need to support solar system exploration as an important goal for our human and robotic programs, but only as one goal among several. And we need to invite other countries to share in a meaningful way in both the adventure and the cost of space exploration.

Again, your thoughts on this issue are important to us and we appreciate hearing from you.

Sincerely,
The Edwards Team

----------

It's a bit unspecific, though that's to be expected. I'd be surprised if any of the presidential candidates have given any serious thought to space policy, but it's encouraging, both the kind of response and the fact that I got a response. Thank you so much, Senator Edwards, I appreciate that you run a campaign that takes a common person's questions and issues seriously enough to listen and respond. I wish you the best of luck in your campaign.

Edit: I have now taken the time to find Senator McCain's question email, and have sent the question to him, as well as Governor Huckabee and Mayor Giuliani. If I hear anything, it will be promptly posted here. Here's to hoping for good responses from the others, even if it's only eventually!

**Disclaimer: My political views and persuasions are not necessarily for or against Senator Edwards. I remain, and will continue to remain, publicly neutral in all politics until such time as a decision needs to be made by myself. As I am not eligible to participate in any primary or caucus, that time will not be until the general election, at which point my choice and feelings will remain private. I greatly appreciate what Senator Edwards has done, but this is in no way a personal endorsement of any candidate.

STS-122 Update

2007-11-30T12:01:00.000-05:00

The Flight Readiness Review has begun for Space Shuttle Atlantis, on schedule for launch next Thursday. It should be a great launch, tentatively scheduled for 4:31 PM EST. You can watch it on NASA TV, available through NASA's website. I will actually be at Goddard during this launch. I don't know if anything special happens here or not, but this is the first manned spaceflight event for which I'll be surrounded by NASA employees. Can't be a bad thing.

Final Lap

2007-11-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

The end of the semester is near at hand, much to my relief. I'm looking forward to be able to go home for Christmas and spend some time with my family. I'll be able to finish my telescope mirror while I'm there, too. The best part will, of course, be the fact that I have no homework to do. I'm sure I'll end up solving some problems when I get bored anyway. Eventually I need to start getting prepared for the Qualifying Exam in my program.

Research is progressing. I've been told the results of my modeling are promising, and we think we might really be on to a good idea with it. I'll be spending some time this afternoon trying to model a curved mirror, especially to estimate just how much memory I'll need in order to simulate the whole thing.

I'm also spending as much time this week as I can playing the trumpet. I'll be helping with a Messiah performance on Sunday, and since I haven't played in a few years, it's taking me a while to build up the stamina I'll need for that. I've taken to playing my mouthpiece while I drive during the commute. The only thing that could make a Mahlerian fanfare more challenging is to do it on just a mouthpiece. =) It's good to be playing again; I've really missed it.

I was watching the Republican debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube the other day, and was really glad to hear someone ask about the space program. It's unfortunate they didn't allow all the candidates to speak about it, and doubly unfortunate to hear someone say this program is one of the reasons our financial condition in this country is where it is. A recent survey found most people in the country really believe that NASA's budget is almost as large as that for the DOD. That unfortunate attitude seems to permeate even our national leadership. I personally am nowhere even close to picking a side in this monstrous debate, but whomever we choose I hope he or she will understand why this program is so important to us, and why it won't be done by private industry.

Re-searching

2007-11-16T13:00:00.000-05:00

Continuing with the moon theme today, I've started working on a model for a detection system to be used at the moon. One of the major issues is the brightness of the moon, so it requires us to maneuver the ions to a position that's out of the direct light from the moon surface. Challenging, to say the least. I've had an idea that I'll try to simulate quickly and see how feasible it would be.

I've also had an update on my previous research at BYU. The ion source I developed there is performing beautifully, in some ways better than we had hoped. The magnetic field in the trap has a collimating effect on the stream of ions from the source, and so they'll lose fewer of the ions than we had anticipated. The number they're getting clear at the end of the trap is in the 10^12 range, well more than what's needed for the experiment. It's an efficient little source, that's for sure! The trap testing has also shown some other fascinating things-- like a precursor peak to the major signal from the ions hitting the end. The timing of it is almost exact for objects with twice the energy, which would imply doubly-ionized atoms. It's very small, so our assumption that most of the material was singly ionized seems correct. I'm told with a little imagination you can almost see different peaks for boron (mass 11) and carbon (mass 12). Good news on that front!

Let's stay up late and watch the earth-rise.

2007-11-16T12:34:00.000-05:00

The Japanese Space Agency has released some really spectacular photos of the moon in high-definition. They also have this great video of an earth rise. My sister could tell you what the first frames mean, but I have no clue. The video is amazing, though.

I haven't quite got the html right for this post, so it looks a little funny for now. Sorry about that. If it's giving trouble, the original video can be found at

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071113_kaguya_e.html

There's also a good earth-set video as well.

"Earth-rise" Images taken by the HD camera of the KAGUYA (no audio)

Back to the Pad

2007-11-14T09:31:00.001-05:00

As if life weren't exciting enough, Atlantis has made it to the pad for its launch in early December. It's been some time since NASA has been able to keep up this kind of pace, and I'm absolutely thrilled to see so much happening again. This mission will bring another major science lab, called Columbus, to the station. This is the ESA's major contribution to the station, and will open up the ability to do a great deal of scientific work for the station. That's a major step forward, and the Astronauts permanently manning the station will be able to make some important contributions and developments to our understanding in a wide variety of fields. Atlantis is a real work-horse, and does her job beautifully. This mission is yet another one for the books!

People are Fascinating

2007-11-09T12:10:00.000-05:00

The cafeteria today is more crowded than usual, and I've been enjoying overhearing snippets of conversations between people who work here. So far I've heard about foreign students having difficulty with the Federal government (which somehow has turned into a discussion about how to cheat the IRS?! Don't ask me-- I'm not going to listen in on that one.) and numerous discussions of research work, including advice on where to get a tow truck to move a lathe. What a great place!

The weather here has definitely turned cold. I woke up to 34 degrees this morning, and I'm loving it. I think my favorite weather has always been when it changes, whether a storm is coming, or winter or summer is on its way. I always prefer Spring, when things come back to life and warm up again, but this weather is great too.

The good news is I've made some progress on my research. I've been able to get some data that explains why there is so much transmission at low energies through potential grids-- the spaces between wires lower the potential enough that the effective potential of the plane is really only about 95% of what it should be. I'm planning to examine how much that changes by the strength of the electric fields, and determine if there's a good way to predict the potential fall off at large distances. The best thing about the data is it shows I only need to simulate a volume about 0.5 mm away from the grid on either side-- that's a quarter of what I've been doing, and so the amount of RAM I need to simulate this is suddenly much less. Regions farther from the grids can easily be simulated with simpler systems, taking less than a MB of RAM, so I should be able to accurately model the Goddard Faraday Cup with some careful thinking.

I think we're making progress with finding my Dissertation Research-- we're going to start discussing a project I can apply what I've done with electrostatic grids to modeling a possible instrument that could be used in examining the dust that gets kicked off of the moon by the solar wind. Maybe it'll lead to an actual project that goes to the moon!

Discovery Lands

2007-11-07T13:23:00.001-05:00

It's been a wonderfully successful mission-- but I'm sure everyone is glad to be back on Earth! Countdown to early December, for the next one!

Getting my Bearings

2007-11-02T13:10:00.000-04:00

Hello once again from the cafeteria at Goddard Space Flight Center! I've been terribly busy the past few weeks, with homework, exams, and research. Unfortunately, I can't say that a great deal has been accomplished through it. I have learned a great deal, and made some progress with my research, but everything just seems to move more slowly than usual when you're a graduate student. It's an odd, and hardly unique phenomenon.

The important news is that I will be sending in a proposal for the NASA Graduate Student Research Program. If I'm successful, it will mean a solid income for me as a graduate student, and will almost secure the possibility of finishing my degree in four years. And it would completely pay for my pilot's license. This is an excellent opportunity for me, and I'm excited for it.

The difficult thing about that is it means that essentially by Christmas I need to have found what I will do for my Ph.D. dissertation. That's a heavy assignment, and I'll need far more help than I've needed in the past. I know my prayers will have a strong focus on this, and I appreciate the prayers of my family and friends for this as well. It strikes me as a very important task in my life, and yet I have to understand that the Lord is still watching out for me even if I don't get the grant. Somehow this has to work out.

In preparation for that, I will be trying to finish my article for RSI this weekend, dealing with my work as a Master's student. If I can get that out of my mind, perhaps it will be more free to focus on a new project. It'll be a trick to get that and my quantum mechanics homework done, but I'll find a way! This is an exciting time; I can feel movement starting to happen. It might be a bit like hearing the fuel pumps turn on in your spacecraft shortly before ignition. My heart's already pounding-- I can't wait for this launch!

Shuttle Launch Tomorrow

2007-10-22T13:08:00.000-04:00

STS-120 will be launching from Cape Canaveral tomorrow at 11:38 am EST, weather pending. There seems to be a decent chance that cloud cover in the area will delay the launch. I'm torn-- I'd like this crew to get up as soon as they can, but I'll also be in class at the scheduled launch time. A delay might mean I can watch. Hopefully circumstances will at least allow for a well timed launch, and not delay the program further.

Watch for coming news of my own progress soon...

Expedition 16 Launch

2007-10-09T15:50:00.000-04:00

Expedition 16 is set for its launch tomorrow morning at 9:22 am Eastern Time. This is a historic mission for two reasons: it consists of the first woman in command of the International Space Station, and the first Astronaut from Malaysia. Both events are certainly worth celebrating, and we should be in for an exciting launch tomorrow morning!

Live feeds of the Soyuz launches are usually available through NASA TV, and it's a fun experience to hear the launch executed in Russian.

Nobel Prize in Physics

2007-10-09T10:17:00.000-04:00

The announcement was made this morning that Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg have receive d the Nobel Physics Prize for their discovery of giant magnetoresistance, leading to huge improvements in data storage for computers. It's amazing to think how far technology has come since this discovery-- I have a half a Terabyte of space on my hard drive in my new computer, and I only paid $110 for it! Thanks, you guys, for bringing years of joy to techies and geeks around the world!

Happy Birthday to the Space Age!

2007-10-04T12:31:00.001-04:00

Today seems to be a good day for new developments in space. First off, NASA and the Russian Space Agency are going to work together on a couple of landers, one for the Moon and one for Mars. They're hoping to get the Moon lander up a year from now. One has to wonder if this is in response to recent speculation about China's rate of progress and the possibility of them getting people back to the moon before we do?

Another exo-planet discovery has been made as well, but this time it's an earth-like planet before its formation-- there's a dust and rock belt around a star not much bigger than ours, and it looks like it's in the early stages of planet formation. This should be exciting, but we have to remember that paint dries a lot faster than planets form!

Finally, a very happy 50th anniversary to the launch of Sputnik and the creation of NASA! It's incredible to think how much we've been able to do since then, and it'll be exciting to be a major part of the next 50 years of Space travel. The Russian embassy will be hosting a celebration here in DC next month, with a very special guest rumored to be coming: Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. Check back in a couple of weeks for more details, and in a month for a full report of the event!

Hooray for the beautiful rain!

2007-09-28T14:33:00.000-04:00

This has turned out to be a full and exhausting week. Orion has been repaired, and I now have my new computer back. I've started preparing to use the flight simulator, and the system seems to handle it quite well. I'm able to get excellent performance out of it. Now I just need to learn how to use the simulator effectively for training, and find the time to do it!

Dr. Chang Díaz gave a wonderful presentation on Tuesday, and I am glad I was able to afford the time to see it. It seems the VASIMR project was able to make some great strides, and the whole system looks quite promising. One statement that caught my attention was that Dr. Chang Díaz said if operation can be improved some more, we might be able to reduce the journey time to Mars to as little as 39 days! It's exciting to see the possibilities that this new technology will present to us.

My research is moving on, as I learn how to use the SIMION program (that's sim-ion, not like the monkey). As I struggle to keep afloat in my classes while spending time on the research projects I'm involved in, it strikes me that one of the major difficulties in the path to becoming an Astronaut is learning how to educate yourself. Invariably when an Astronaut is asked what it takes to make it in that career, one of the things that comes up is “study hard”. Unfortunately, it seems the farther I get into my studies, the less I know how to do that. Examining my time usage, it's clear that I not only have enough time in the day to do all my study, work, and play, I have excess. So where does all that time go, and why don't I manage to finish everything as I should? I think one of the real issues has to do with eating and sleeping well. It's very difficult for any graduate student to eat right, especially for breakfast, and it's been hot enough here lately that I haven't had such an easy time falling asleep. Thank goodness it started raining last night and the temperature has dropped in the DC area! Over the next week I hope to try and find an easy way to eat better and get the rest I need so that in the day I'm able to focus on what I'm doing better.

Astronaut Speaking at BYU

2007-09-21T13:33:00.000-04:00

Dr. Franklin R. Chang Díaz, a former Astronaut, will be speaking at a Forum at Brigham Young University on Tuesday, 25 September. Dr. Chang Díaz is the developer of the VASIMR plasma rocket concept, and is currently heading the Ad Astra Corporation to oversee its development. They should have a prototype built fairly soon, so this is an exciting bit of work for the Space Program! I almost had the opportunity to spend a Summer working on this project, but unfortunately there wasn't enough funding that year to have me come. I have had some encounters with the project since, and even had the chance to meet Dr. Chang Díaz at an American Physical Society - Division of Plasma Physics meeting in 2003. He's a great person, and should give a very interesting presentation next week.

These things always seem to occur just after I leave a region, but fortunately the Forum will be available to the public at http://www.byutv.org or at http://byu.tv . The broadcast begins at 1:00 pm Eastern Time. If you're unable to see it then, or if network traffic prevents a decent connection to stream the video, BYU's site http://byu.tv makes previous video streams available at any time, so the forum can be viewed at your convenience.

I find that it sometimes doesn't work with my installation of Firefox, so you might try it with Internet Explorer if you're having trouble getting it.

Starting Research

2007-09-21T13:31:00.001-04:00

It's lunchtime again at Goddard, so here I am with a report of the past week or two. University schooling is a peculiar environment, to say the least. It seems it takes me longer to do any normal task than it ever did before coming here. But everything goes on, with or without me. I've managed to stay more or less on top of everything. In the mean time, I saw the birth and death of my new desktop computer. Something has happened to the motherboard, but fortunately the people at Intel were kind enough to offer to replace it for me. So I guess in the upcoming week I'll see its resurrection, as well!

The big progress of the past couple weeks has been starting to help on a project happening here, in developing some of the instruments for the Magnetosphere Multi-Scale mission. (The project website is available at http://stp.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/mms/mms.htm) I'll be working specifically with the Fast Plasma Instrument, doing some modeling and analysis to see if we can use the current design to make a kind of aperture in examining high flux regions of the magnetosphere. If that doesn't make any sense, it's alright since it took me two weeks to figure out how to say all that. So far I've been able to collect some papers and documents I need to read as background, and will soon start working with the modeling software we use here to learn how to simulate the electromagnetic fields and motion of the particles in relation to the instrument. This should be a fun project, and though it's not my Ph.D. work itself, it will hopefully lead to a publication or two.

Launch on Schedule

2007-09-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

Looks like the repairs on Discovery are going quite well, and we should be right on time for launch on October 23!

http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/current.html

Astronaut Selection

2007-09-19T23:05:00.001-04:00

NASA has opened the application pool for new Astronauts again. This particular class will, of course, not train at all for, or it sounds like even with the Shuttle. As sad as it may be to part with that dear friend, this is an exciting time for the Space Program! I'll be waiting excitedly to hear about the new class of Astronauts next summer, and see the faces of the first group to be chosen specifically for Orion and the Ares rockets. Wish it was my turn to send in an application! Maybe next time. =)

I have to add this little snippet from NASA's announcement for the open Astronaut Candidacy application:

"The open positions require extensive travel on Earth and in space. Possible destinations may include, but are not limited to, Texas, Florida, California, Russia, Kazakhstan, the International Space Station and the moon."

More information about applications can be found at http://www.usajobs.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/recruit.html

I look good in red.

2007-09-19T22:03:00.000-04:00

Well, I had a post ready to submit last Friday and failed to get it on. Oh well, such is life. I'll review what I had written up this Friday, edit it, and post it then. Today I wanted to write something about a fun experience I had today. I drive a "True Red" 2007 Mazda 3, and love it to death! This afternoon I took it in for its first oil change, and just before I left one of the mechanics there stopped me and asked if my car was the "red buggy". He had this bright gleam in his eye and a boyish grin on his face. Every time someone stops me and says something good about my car, I get a feeling inside that I imagine is a little bit like the feeling of a proud parent.

I doubt anyone would consider nominating the Mazda 3 as a high-performance vehicle, but it seems to have a heart and personality that don't try to belie what it is inside. I think that's kind of rare in our market-driven system; too many cars are designed to look like it's something different than it really is. It might look like a fancy sports car, but inside it's just a regular old compact car without much zing to it. The 3, on the other hand, has beautiful curves, but never tries to be anything but a compact car. It's just built well and performs wonderfully. It really is just a fun car to drive! If someone could force Ferrari to make an economy car, I'd imagine it would probably turn out a lot like this little Mazda. Hence, I believe red is an appropriate color! I would never have imagined myself as a red-car person, but I guess deep inside me there was this passion for flash and speed that overcame me when I decided to buy one. Turns out that many astronauts tend to have a similar passion, and have a history of driving some pretty flashy cars and motorcycles. At least I'm in good company!

A Short Background, Part II

2007-09-07T14:00:00.001-04:00

In addition to all these classes, I discovered in myself that my entire life I have always been fascinated by learning new things and exploring. My mother recently told me about the grief I caused her as a child, constantly pulling things out of the kitchen cabinets and crawling inside to see what was there. That instinct has driven me to picking up all kinds of hobbies, like Ballroom Dancing, Photography, Amateur Radio, and many other things. In a future post, I may discuss my experiences there more fully.

So that brings us more or less to today. It seems most everybody would recommend to anyone with a desire to become an astronaut to get a Graduate degree of some kind, especially if a Doctorate can be obtained. So here I am, living in the Washington D.C. area looking for that completion of my education. I am currently working on a Ph.D. in physics, and I hope to be able to arrange some kind of research project here at Goddard Space Flight Center. So far things look very promising in that direction, and I'm very excited to finally be working more directly with the work NASA is doing! Of course, my hobbies are certainly not falling by the way side! Before moving out here, I was working on grinding an 8” mirror for a telescope I'd like to make. I ran out of time, so rather than pack the heavy and fragile glass on the airplane I left it in the care of my parents, and will be finishing that project around Christmas time. Currently I'm involved in assembling a hand-designed PC, but I've run into some issues with that. I'll be working those out over the next week, and will post more information when I have it up and running. One of the main reasons for the nice new computer is to use as a flight simulator in preparation for next spring, when I will begin obtaining a pilot's license. Yes, that's right, I will finally be flying! I've wanted to for so long, and the circumstances here seem to have all geared me to that direction, so I'm going to take the opportunity while I can. True, I'll only be starting in little Cessnas, but at least it's a beginning. I've kind of set a goal for myself to be able to fly down to Florida sometime late next summer and see a Shuttle launch. That will be a first as well, and perhaps one of the most exciting things I'll have ever done!

Well, I believe that will do as an introduction. As I continue on and make progress on my work here, I'll keep this page updated with things I discover and experience. This is a wonderful time in my life, and I hope I”ll be able to make the most of it!

A Short Background, Part I

2007-09-07T13:59:00.000-04:00

Well, here I am sitting in the cafeteria at Goddard Space Flight Center. I'm not actually authorized to connect to the Internet through their system yet, so I'm typing this up and will post it later, when I get back to the university. I came for a seminar put on by the Heliophysics division, but unfortunately it was canceled today. So instead I'll have something to eat, and head back to my office to work on my homework for this week.

For this beginning post, I think it might be appropriate to give a little background. Years ago, I must have been 10 or 12, my father attended a computer science conference at which a presentation was made by Eugene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 mission. Even at that age, I was quite confident about my career choice, and so of course my father mentioned me to him. He was kind enough to take a pad of paper and send me a little message, saying simply: “Reach for your own star-- you might be surprised!” I've always treasured this little note, and keep it with me wherever I go. Gene, if you ever happen to run across this, thank you for the kind words. They've supported me more than you could have ever imagined!

Perhaps my beginnings in preparation were in an area that got many Astronauts started; I was a Boy Scout. In addition to obtaining the rank of Eagle, I was also given the opportunity to participate in the Montana Council Junior Leadership Training Camp, Takaschin, both as a participant and a staff member. Some of my favorite childhood memories came from this incredible camp, and I credit nearly all of my leadership ability to the experiences I had there. There were serious injuries testing our ability with first aid, and great moments sitting around a campfire coming to realize how incredible our world really is.

Since that time, I've done a great deal to prepare for a career as an Astronaut. I had the fortune of meeting Dr. Don Lind, also an Astronaut from the Apollo era, and spent a wonderful day talking with him about everything from life and religion to the feeling of zero-g. He gave me some sound advice, encouraging me to get a strong background in all the science fields. Fortunately for me, I've always been very interested in just about everything (except perhaps making lots of money). So I was able to broaden out quite a bit while a student at Brigham Young University, taking classes in Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Computer Programming, Physical Fitness, as well as Art and Music. I also served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Italy, and so became quite fluent in Italian. I began learning Hebrew as well, though I haven't yet been able to spend much time with that language.

Here we go!

2007-09-05T17:25:00.000-04:00

I'm an astronaut. Well, at least I hope to be someday soon. Recent events in my life have inspired me to start keeping track of my efforts and progress, and hence this blog. It will likely hold lots of thoughts and discussions of the difficulty reaching this particular goal, but who knows exactly where it will lead?

I can't give any promises how frequently I will make posts, but hopefully it'll be often enough to keep this interesting! So if you've stumbled across this page, welcome! And come back soon to see if I've made any progress on this fascinating journey!