Space Lottery and Ion Thrusters

Strangely, Christmas Day is usually a day I like to think about space. And it’s easy to do with Mars so prominently displayed in the sky this year. In my life I have had many pathways to choose from but you just can’t do everything your heart desires. There was one aspect of physics that really captured my attention: electromagnetic physics. The equations are very sexy. Almost as sexy as Misaki Ito (伊東美咲)! HeHeHe . . . Take a look at the equations for yourself here in this article. Seeing what they ultimately translate into is very exciting to me.

Back in my music days, before college, I learned about Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generators and ever since then I loved extrapolating the applications of Lorentz Force fields and the Hall Effect to ideas involving space exploration. A couple of my friends might even remember a small magnetic device I designed for a theoretical medical application. If I had chosen physics instead of biology, I'm pretty sure I would have ended up in ion thruster design. Ion thrusters have seen use on small craft such as the asteroid probe Hayabusa (はやぶさ) and the small body probe Dawn.

My particular favorite is the magnetoplasmadynamic thruster or MPD arcjet. Obviously there are many problems yet to be solved but that’s why we become scientists right? I’m still trying to get my head around how nuclear decay could be used to provide sufficient, long-term electrical power to the MPD arcjet. Wow, when I get excited about stuff like this it makes me want to give up on going medical school or the game company and go get a physics degree. Damn it!! Life is just too short!

Anyway, my other thought for today is that NASA should start selling lottery tickets for trips on the shuttle. Buying a $1 ticket for a chance to fly on the space shuttle would be like winning what - $20 million? There can always be disclaimers involving a health check. Dangerous? It’s not that bad. Jeez, people die at Disneyworld too. The shuttle lift-off and re-entry G-forces are around 3 while typical rollercoaster G-forces exceed 3. The Mindbender rollercoaster at Galaxyland in Canada delivers 5.2 Gs. As for weightlessness, places such as Zero-G offer the experience for people into their 90s. Obviously some medical conditions preclude participation and so this company keeps the parabolic flights to around 20 to minimize detrimental effects.

Offer a week or two of astronaut training and significantly increase your revenue. More importantly, you also increase public attention on your programs which gives you leverage in the Congress to get more funding.

- Just a peasant

Photo of a Xenon ion thruster from NASA's Glenn Center.

Icicles in the Sun

Cold snow plus warm roofs equals icicles. Some icicles are more awesome than others. These icicles stretch all the way to the ground. It would be kind of cool to have these right outside your bedroom window wouldn’t it? There were a lot of other great icicle formations but this one was pretty interesting. I have a lot of friends from much warmer countries and I thought they might like these snapshots of winter.

Today's temperature is -15 degrees Celcius with wind chill. Believe me, wind chill matters when you have to walk outside. I really, really love weight lifting but, when it's this cold outside, it's really hard to get motivated to walk to the gym. I really just want to stay in where its cozy and warm.

- Just a peasant

Photo from another place in my Midwest neighborhood. Click on picture to enlarge.

The Next Day

Now the next day the snow is really piling up and it does look like a winter wonderland - except for the powerlines and stuff. Still, its good weather for a hot chocolate and to curl up in a blanket with your lover.

- Just a peasant

Photo from the neighborhood behind my laboratory.

Oh jeez . . . Oh my gosh . . .

Oh sure, a snowy Christmas seems really neat, but I've found that your enjoyment of it is inversely proportional to the amount of time that you must actually function in it. For myself, the amusing thing is how it seems that every year, everybody has forgotten how to drive in snow from the previous year. The first snow in the Midwest wrecks havoc with the commute home. Don't get me wrong, I'm as terrible a driver as anyone in the snow, but fortunately, I don't have to drive when I'm in the Midwest. Fifteen-minute commutes sometimes turn into a very hectic hour and the wheels' grip on the road is tenuous at best. The first snow is always pretty, but people in the Midwest do not look forward to driving in it.

- Just a peasant

Photo near my lab. Note the line of cars stretching up over the hill to the hospital. Oh yeah, it's also -2 degrees C.

Misaki Ito and Elegance (伊東美咲と優雅)

Misaki Ito is as elegant as she is cute! 伊東美咲さんは優雅とかわいいです。

- Just a peasant

Photo of Miskai Ito from Shiseido's Maquillage line of cosmetics. I hope they don't mind me using their photo.

Always in new waters

Okay, I admit - starting a company is hard. Bringing an idea to life, manufacturing it, and then marketing it are a lot of work. But for me, it’s worth it just to try it. So I completed my first product and have been developing the second. All of this including having to do my everyday laboratory work at my real job. But I love the idea of following parallel career pathways. It is a lot of work and I get tired but I figure there'll be plenty of time to rest when I’m dead.

- Just a peasant

This photo was hard to get too, but I got it anyway - though at considerable wetness to myself only moments later. Maybe there's a message there? Oregon Coast - November 2007.