Crushing Blows

Rarely in our lives do our eyes rest on something so awe-inspiring that our jaws lie agape. Even more infrequently must we raise our hands to protect our wide-open mouths from rock shrapnel. This past Friday, I had such a moment.

Now, because I signed an NDA, I can't get into specifics. Suffice it to say, I visited a company that produces equipment used in the mining industry. Common sense would dictate that such a company would have test equipment designed to analyze the mechanics of their products. For an entire minute, I could have cared less about numbers indicating forces and displacements: there was a machine merely feet away showering rock everywhere. It was a demonstration that would humble any engineer who is used to using screws as small as those found on eyeglasses and is normally specifying intricate rounded corners on exotic metals. This was steel crushing rock. This was awesome.

Just after the demonstration ended, the little man in my head turned off the giant Inject Adrenaline valve, giving me a few more minutes of gradually-subsiding head rush before I returned to planet Earth. It was at this point that I realized a very important and hard truth. The machine I designed and helped to build needs to do exactly that. The valve re-opened.

It's going to be an interesting couple of months as this project comes to a head. Once my company releases the design to the public (and we get our patent stuff in line), I'll show off some pictures here. You won't be let down.

Where has Brad gone?

Breathe deeply, my dear friends; breathe deeply. I still exist, and I still wish to become an astronaut. Things, as "things" are wont to do, have gotten a wee bit crazy in my life.

First and foremost, I have decided to bump up my hour commitment at work from 80% (or 32 hours) to the standard 40-hour week. Coupled with my 6 hours of classwork (and associated travel time), my leisure time has taken a considerable hit. Working on the weekends is now the norm rather than the exception.

So why have I decided to take on a hellish schedule? An obvious answer might be money. And while the extra padding in my wallet is nice, the true answer lies in my workload. Put simply, I noticed that my employer needed some extra work from me. Since working hard only gets so far, I offered to work an additional 8 hours each week. I'm still adjusting to the new schedule, but no one ever got anywhere by taking it easy.

In more specific terms, I have certainly been up to plenty of shenanigans. Halloween is, shall we say, an important Madison holiday. Aside from the typical children under 12, pretty much everyone between the ages of 18 and 30 dons a costume. I tend to take pride in making an original costume that is truly unique. This year, I used my basic knowledge of circuitry to make a ghost costume. This was not any typical ghost costume, mind you: it was a Pacman ghost costume. Beneath the white sheets, I wired up both red and blue LEDs to simulate Blinky's in-game appearance. By my side, my lovely girlfriend Marie dressed up as Ms. Pac-man. We were a hit, especially when we chased each other, turning only at right angles.

More recently, I served as a technical judge for a LEGO tournament last weekend. The participants, aged 9-14, displayed some serious creativity and ingenuity. I can only hope that all of us judges imparted some sense of excitement for the engineering field. The world would do well to encourage them in their pursuit of the sciences.

I close this post with yet another example of my perpetual undertakings: my current location. I am presently in Pennsylvania on a business trip. Rather than sitting in a conference room listening to a paper's exposition, I get to assemble parts of my design into a working rock-crusher. And not just any rock-crusher... no, no, no. This behemoth is a prototype for a lunar-based autonomous mining machine. While I can't delve into specifics due to company secrets, let me assure you that you will not want to get in its stone-obliterating way.

It is here that I now sign off. Thanks for reading. I will strive to keep you abreast of my activities on a more-regular schedule.

Lesson Learned

I promised the readers of this blog some content each day over World Space Week, and I failed. All I ask is that you take it easy on me: I'm very new to this whole blogging thing. So what have I learned? Unless the content is already written or my full-time job is blogging, don't give date-specific promises. Due to Murphy's Law, stuff like work and school are bound to get in the way. Now I've learned.

On a more related note, I will shortly (see how I avoided a specific date? I'm learning!) write about the topics originally intended for World Space Week. These include tangible benefits of the space industry, why we need space science, and looking to the future. I also have a number of other topics I'd like to broach, but I'll save those for later.

Long story short, again I apologize for the broken promises. However, never fear. I still have plenty of material I'd like to share with you. Please feel free to engage in conversation in the comments of each post, whether you agree whole-heartedly or vehemently disagree. Thanks!

Shame

Well, I didn't get around to posting on Monday. Work and homework and group projects got in the way. So, at the suggestion of a loyal reader, I added some hover comments to the pictures in my previous post. These captions should help out any lost readers.

A Selection of Images

Instead of inundating you with another eloquent essay regarding space, I will instead offer a few images that I find to be quite beautiful. These are all NASA pictures, so no copyright notices necessary.

Why We Need Space Exploration

Look up and tell me what you see. OK... bad idea. You're reading this on a computer, and so you're probably indoors. The next time you step outside, though, take a moment to ponder the limitless expanse above us. Assuming no clouds or trees block your view, you are essentially looking in a line trillions of miles long. Moving your head ever so slightly to one side, and you are looking down an entirely different line. Space basically goes forever, and the drive that brought Christopher Columbus to the Americas similarly drives us to venture into the unknown that is space.

If the ideal of exploration doesn't appeal to you, perhaps species survival will. I won't be so bold as to say that we are living on borrowed time, but chances are good that, in the long run, Earth will experience a catastrophic event. Asteroids, comets, volcanoes, and global warming all pose similar threats to human existence. Should something like this occur, the human species would do well to have inhabited other worlds.

Finally, we have the short-term benefits of such exploration. Already, we have seen many tangible benefits of space exploration, including GPS and satellite-based television. I will delve into these in a post later this week. There are many other areas where microgravity and orbiting the Earth may have an enormous impact: chemistry, materials science, biology, communication, the list goes on. Whereas our airplanes can simulate microgravity for sub-minute durations, building equipment in space adds a new dimension to microgravity science.

Yes, exploration is in our blood, as is survival. We also, however, have a giant laboratory above us. It would be a shame for us to forget about it. One of the many mandates of government is to pay for public works: projects that are simply too large of a burden for any single non-governmental entity to manage. As of now, using space exploration is one of these duties.

Astronautic Achievements

The space programs around the world surely stand on the shoulders of giants. If not for the bravery and determination of the men and women before us, many of the space-related accomplishments that we take for granted simply would not have happened. Following is a short list of some of the most spectacular and world-changing astronauts of this short Space Age.

Yuri Gagarin
While many Americans may know that the Russians put a person in space before the US, they may not know that gentleman's name: Yuri Gagarin. On April 12, 1961, Yuri transformed the Space Age into the Manned Space Age. Oh, and he has a 130 foot monument made of titanium dedicated to him.

Gherman Titov
Mr. Titov is truly an inspiration to me. He was, and still is, the youngest person in space. On August 6, 1961, a 25 year-old Gherman spent just over a day orbiting the Earth.

Aleksei Leonov
Flying free is what Aleksei Leonov did that makes him special. Aleksei became the first person in human history to actually be in space. Without a ship around him, Aleksei spent 12 minutes in the presence of absolutely nothing. He then went on to command the Russian side of the very first US-USSR joint mission.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
We all know these two men were the first to land on the moon. For about one day, they were the only inhabitants of an entire world. Yes, the moon is smaller than the earth, but try thinking of it this way: Neil and Buzz were the only two people on an area larger than Europe, South America, and Australia, combined. Now that's desolation.

Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev, Vladislav Volkov
These three men were the first to inhabit a space station orbiting over 100 miles above the earth. They spent 23 days performing very meaningful scientific experiments that progressed our understanding of extended stays in microgravity. Those 23 days, however, proved to be these men's last, as their returning spacecraft accidentally vented all of its air during descent, suffocating the cosmonauts.

Bruce McCandless II
What Aleksei Leonov did, Bruce McCandless took to the next level. On February 7, 1984, Bruce became the first person to be completely freely floating in space sans tether. Utilizing a maneuvering unit that he helped design, McCandless ventured into the void of space on his own and came back, twice.

Yang Liwei
Proving that Russia and USA were not the only nations interested in spaceflight, China put Yang Liwei into orbit aboard the Chinese-designed and Chinese-launched spacecraft Shenzhou 5. Despite mission parameters that hearkened back to the US Gemini and Russian Vostok missions, Yang's flight on October 15, 2003 signified the entire world's desire to do what the US and Russia had been doing for decades: exploring the limits above us.

Mike Melvill
Melvill's mission was simple: get to space and come back. On June 21, 2004, he became the 443rd person to do so. Melvill, however, did this aboard a privately-built, privately-funded, and privately-launched spacecraft. No longer are the US and Russia in a race to get to space. The space race is now in the hands of the private industry.

I'm sorry to report that all of these record-setting astronauts are men. Yes, I could have listed the "First Woman in Space," but I think that belittles the issue at hand. Women simply haven't been given opportunities to beat out the men. Perhaps the first person to set foot on Mars will be a woman.