off the top layer

1. Time-Varying Inertia for Attitude Control
2. AIAA Call for Papers
3. taughannock falls state park summer concert series
4. magnetic field of a magnetized cylinder
5. ma = Fpin + Fcoil + Fcoil, meissner
6. Sine sweep
7. 2 Jul 08
8. Concise?
9. X Transfer Functions, Unwindowed Data
10. the advanced mirror image method
11. exhaust velocity
12. Hamilton’s Equations
13. FFT, 6.0065 cm
14. 0972 counts
15. (but bad averaging)
16. Glue something here to force flashlight into proper orientation

events on my mind

1. Squash ladder match #3
2. Binghamton Airshow
3. Ithacafest
4. Williams Reunions
5. AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit
6. Jonathan Coulton concert in New York, NY
7. Spore Creature Creator Trial release

why I hate, despise, detest, and loathe LabView

1. Inability to write descriptive comments!
2. Inability to name variables!!!
3. Nonlinear, graphical programming interface:
   1. Messy, horribly hard-to-follow programs!  Wires everywhere!
   2. Extreme difficulty to insert new commands into an established program without ruining the organization structure!!
   3. Frakking impossible to debug!!!!!
   4. Computer processors operate linearly anyway–LABVIEW IS LYING!!!
4. Sequence structures–the most cumbersome way possible for the LabView creators to have tried to rectify the problem that sometimes YOU JUST NEED TO EXECUTE COMMANDS IN ORDER JUST LIKE A CONVENTIONAL PROGRAM, DAMMIT!!!
5. Mouse sensitivity!  As in, my programming ability should not have to rely on my skill to accurately position the mouse over some of those frakking tiny terminals!
6. Timing structures–THEY DO NO SUCH THING!
7. The fact that it has to rebuild all its data acquisition sub-VIs every time I want to make a tiny change to the sampling mode!
8. Shift registers and sequence instances!  The saddest excuses for variables on the planet–and they contribute to the messy wiring problem!!
9. It handles arrays in an extraordinarily clunky manner–and when you’re taking data, the role LabView is best suited for, MOST OF THE TIME YOU CAN’T POSSIBLY AVOID USING ARRAYS!
10. MY LAB RUNS ON IT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

well, well…

1. Glider and tow plane
2. Champagne Supernova
3. Vermont
4. Paycheck
5. Red October
6. Mozzarella pesto burgers
7. Jupiter
8. Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene
9. The Gates of the Desert

things that we need if we are actually serious about getting to the Moon and Mars and then *doing* something when we get there

1. A mostly-reusable Earth-surface-to-LEO lifter with a trivial launch cost (compared to the Saturn, STS, or Ares) and a high cargo capacity; i.e. an orbital version of SpaceShipOne with a bigger payload bay.
2. A system of modules for easily and robustly assembling space structures and vehicles (i.e. space stations and high-capacity, long-duration LEO-to-LMO transit vehicles).  This is where my research could come in.
3. An Earth-orbit assembly platform/rendezvous station, made out of the modular system specified in (2).  Similar platform modules to be dropped off in LMO.
4. High-cargo-capacity LMO-to-surface descent vehicles.  Mars surface-to-LMO vehicles with comparable efficiency to the Earth surface-to-LEO vehicles specified in (1).

Take-away message: cut this CEV crap, and don’t fall back to “faster, better, cheaper.”  Sink a good amount of resources into next-gen space technology R&D, and after the initial investment we’ll be able to do most anything for little additional cost.  Note that if we have (1)-(4) above, we could just as easily perform manned exploration of the outer solar system as the inner.  We need real vision to do this.  And we must do it, because we will develop the most complete understanding of the Universe through direct experience of it and we must expand out into the Solar System, at least, to ensure our survival in the event of the worst contingencies.

Did I make it?

Originally posted 15 April 2006:

 

1. Be addressed as “Lieutenant Shoer” once again (Ithaca Composite Squadron, Civil Air Patrol)
2. Kayak in Cayuga Lake (or should I call it Kayaka Lake?) — No have kayak. Yet?
3. Go wine-tasting any time I like — Not that I do. But I could!
4. Officially call myself a rocket scientist
5. Be the first person in the world to work on an entirely new class of spacecraft — Well, in the first group to do so.
6. Have a color as a mascot
7. Live in my own apartment
8. Be surrounded by gorges and waterfalls
9. Walk down the hall to the ornithopter lab or mix things up with a visit to the college synchotron — Again, not that I do, but I could! There are some pretty damn cool toys around here.
10. Use Zaphod Beeblebrox’s pickup line: “Hey baby, you wanna see my spaceship?” — Haven’t come close to making this one yet, much to my disappointment. But just give me a couple years!!

stuff to bring any family/friends who visit me to

1. David Sedaris at the State Theater (1 April)
2. Deep-dish pizza at The Nines (sooooo good, probably the best pizza I’ve ever tasted)
3. Dessert at Madeline’s  (there just aren’t words)
4. Toughannock Falls (because they are big and impressive)
5. Rhodes Hall B50  (“Space Systems Design Studio”…robot arms and levitating magnets, dude)
6. The I. M. Pei-designed Cornell Art Museum (with intriguing exterior acoustic properties)

Recipe for research results

1. Three (3) alimunum baking pans
2. Six (6) 6×6″ ceramic floor tiles
3. Ten (10) 6×6″ slate floor tiles
4. Nineteen (19) 1″ (long diameter) hexagonal yttrium-barium-copper-oxide high temperature superconductors
5. One quart (1 qt.) Low temperature epoxy
6. Several liters liquid nitrogen

Combine bulk superconductors, epoxy, and one tile (material of your choice) in baking pan.  Fill with LN2 until mixture is just submerged.  Experiment at 77 Kelvin till done.

the things I did yesterday make me happy

1. Finish the last problem on the last exam of the semester
2. Turn in the very last I will ever see of MAE 521: Theory of Linear Systems (or, Abstract Mathematics in Disguise as Engineering)
3. Speak to the undergrads about the forklift palette stacked with satellite building materials, the tool cabinet, and the stop sign that appeared in the middle of my lab
4. Walk outdoors in a t-shirt
5. Move a combuter into my lab
6. Finally move that 5DOF robot arm into my lab!
7. Go out for Mexican food and margaritas and stroll about the Commons
8. Go watch ‘Finding Neverland’

sequence of events that renders accomplishing any work impossible

1. Leave office
2. Walk to apartment
3. Put away things from my backpack
4. Make dinner
5. Eat dinner
6. Clean up from dinner