Control Diagrams in LaTeX
Over Christmas break I’ve become dangerous with document typesetting (wikipedia). There’s something incredibly attractive about having the entire source of a document embedded in a single, text file. Indeed the learning curve has been a bit steep (it may yet get stepper…), but I’m now able to reasonably produce dynamics and controls documents with integrated [...]
#PennyForNASA
In response to #PennyForNASA’s campaign to double NASA’s funding, I emailed my representatives: Dear Sen. Ron Johnson [R, WI], Sen. Herbert Kohl [D, WI], Rep. Tammy Baldwin [D, WI-2]: I’m an engineer and I support Doubling Funding for NASA and U.S. Involvement in Space because solving difficult problems drives innovation while inspiring the nation. Manned [...]
TRACLabs
After graduating in December 2010 I had 6 months to spend before starting grad school, so I went on an extended internship with TRACLabs in Houston, TX. TRACLabs is a small company that does automation and robotics research and development work for NASA and the Defense Department. My work centered on developing and using TRACBot, [...]
Letter in Support of NASA & Commercial Crew
A Letter to Senators Kohl and Johnson in support of robust funding of NASA’s Commercial Crew program. As your committee marks-up NASA’s 2013 budget I hope you will consider my thoughts on the future of NASA and government-funded research and development in general. I’m from Wausau, earned my undergraduate degree from UW-Madison in Engineering Mechanics-Astronautics, [...]
Pictures from Big Bend National Park
I spent Memorial Day weekend hiking around Big Bend National Park, located in southwest Texas. It was hot, super-dry, and a 10 hour drive from Houston, but I enjoyed exploring the mountains and getting out of Houston. The high fire danger prohibited backcountry camping in the higher elevations, so I hiked about 15 miles on [...]
LEVITATE
—Acronym says it all: The Lunar Exploration Vehicle for Intraplanetary Transport and Terrestrial Expansion. An enormous project, but a good time. The EMA senior design spans two semesters; the first develops an idea into a consumer product, while the second tasks us to design an airplane, submarine, or spaceship. Last semester I developed BoomAlert, a [...]
STS-130 Launch
We left Madison on Friday, drove straight to Florida for the planned Sunday launch, saw it go up Monday morning, and were back in Madison 11:30 Tuesday. Lots of driving, but a great launch to see. NASA’s HD footage STS-130 Pictures: From Chris Spaceflight Now press site, remote cameras
BoomAlert
—A device to warn sailboat crews of dangerous boom movements; developed in EMA 469 with David Aguilar, Lisa McGill, Scott Sardina, and Jordan Wachs. The EMA senior design spans two semesters; the first develops an idea into a consumer product, while the second tasks us to design an airplane, submarine, or spaceship. Over the first [...]
NASA Kennedy Space Center
Summer at Kennedy Space Center I’m in Florida at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. I’ll hope to share a couple of the cool things I’m doing here: Here’s a map of the area. Contents: First Week June into July GOES-O Launch The Fourth of July Family Visit STS-127 STS-128 Great Smokey Mountains National Park KSC Study [...]
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