Random Musings from the Warped Minds of Jonathan Goff, Ken Murphy, John Hare, and Kirk Sorensen
Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 27th, 2008
by guest blogger Ken Recently, SMU hosted the awards luncheon for the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair, wherein all of the winners in the different categories got a whole slew of awards. I managed to wrangle a ticket to the luncheon, and it was certainly an amazing event. I’m not used to the VIP [...]
Posted in NASA, Space Development, Space Policy on Apr 19th, 2008
Over on Jeff’s SpacePolitics site, there is a discussion going on right now about a recent poll on the relevance of space. While much of the discussion was interesting as usual, I particularly liked the point made by a fellow 20-something by the name of James: Those who support the current lunar program often forget [...]
Posted in Administrivia on Apr 14th, 2008
Just wanted to check in and let people know I’m back from Utah. The reception was good, my new brother-in-law has my approval, we got to visit many good friends up there that we hadn’t seen in a while, and I’ve finally joined the 21st century by getting myself a laptop. I’m kind of exhausted [...]
Posted in Space Transportation, Technology, Thrust Augmented Nozzles on Apr 11th, 2008
In this article at AvLeak, there’s discussion of an Aerojet LOX/Kero booster engine project called HC Boost (emphasis mine) : Dubbed HC Boost, the technology development program is aimed at providing an improved, home-grown alternative to the Russian RD-180, the only other viable current-production hydrocarbon rocket engine. Unlike the RD-180, however, the US engine would [...]
Posted in Administrivia on Apr 9th, 2008
So, I get an email tonight reminding me that I had an account setup with google analytics. I set it about a year ago in mid-June, so I don’t have as long of data as I do with my sitemeter account, and I have to admit, I haven’t used it very much. So I decided [...]
Posted in Administrivia on Apr 8th, 2008
I recently noticed that I was getting lots of web traffic from a url that I was unfamiliar with, www.patsfans.com. Being curious I decided to check it out. Apparently there’s been a bit of a case of mistaken identity here, so I figure I ought to give a clarifier: I’m not Jonathan T Goff, the [...]
I’m somewhat curious about the math behind some of Griffin’s comments at the Senate Hearing today: “we are focusing initially on cargo because, I just want to be clear with everybody, we already have a mechanism for getting crews to the station with the Soyuz system, but unless we can bring some new commercial capabilities [...]
Posted in Family on Apr 4th, 2008
Tonight I got an invite to my little sister’s reception. It’s crazy to think that after my little sister has been married for over a month now, that tonight was the first time I actually got to see a picture of my new brother-in-law. They’re cute together: I’m looking forward to driving up to Utah [...]
Posted in Commercial Space, NASA, Propellant Depots, Space Development, Space Policy on Apr 4th, 2008
It’s been long enough since I put up the presentations from the panel, that I figured it would be worth starting a new post to mention some of my thoughts on what we discussed on the panel. Some of these ideas are thoughts that were briefly discussed during the panel, and others are ideas I [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 3rd, 2008
by guest blogger Ken While Jon gets to go have fun at the Space Access conference, I’m stuck here in the metroplex with a dearth of vacation days in the kitty. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as I was back this last weekend for my second year as a volunteer judge at the Dallas [...]