Recent Posts

• On The Participatory Approach to Exploration
• Predictions for Commercial Space in 2009
• The FIRST Team
• Rationale and Goals of the U.S. Civil Space Program
• New web site for nanosat community
• It’s a mystery…team
• Space Shuttle Makes a Bow Wave in Twittersphere
• Many Ways To Participate In Space Enterprise
• Cal Poly SLO Students Tour Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale
• NASA wants your input!

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On The Participatory Approach to Exploration

February 26th, 2009   By Matt   Filed Under Big Idea Space, Industry Space  

There has been some discussion online recently about the application of the participatory tool set to the exploration of space.  This is something that I am very supportive of, having seen first hand in the Centennial Challenges program the kinds of unexpected ideas that can come from giving the public a chance to contribute in parallel with traditional development efforts.  The participatory approach creates a wild card effect that helps to ensure that no stone is left unturned.

In thinking about the online discussion of the role for participatory technologies, I am reminded of something that Mike Bailey, a professor at UCSD Supercomputer Center, told us about learning to produce 3D visualization tools based on OpenGL.  He said that we were learning to become “Engineering Batman” in the sense that we were learning to produce and utilize the things that would be on our Batman utility belts as engineers.

I see the participatory approach as another one of these tools that us “Batman engineers” should know how to best utilize and keep on our utility belts.  Like all tools, there are scenarios when they are right for the job and ones when they are not.  Think of things like computers, hand held calculators, and 3D visualization; they don’t add value unless you take the time to learn how to apply them correctly.  Participatory technologies are no different, but since they necessarily involve putting large numbers of human brains in the loop, I would like to think there is great potential here.  After all, we have seen what mass scalability did in the IT world (i.e. web servers), and now we are finding ways to allow large numbers of people to contribute through these rather than just being passive recipients of information.

We may discover new uses as the participatory tool set is more broadly adopted, but the place where I see immediate benefits is at the innovation stage.  This is the phase of any project where you need to develop as many potential solutions, variations and approach vectors as possible before you start narrowing down and focusing on the most promising of them.  This is something that the participatory approach has done well.  There is an inherent value to the input of outsiders at the early stages of problem solving because they are not necessarily bound by the same assumptions that the experts might be, but by the same token, these inputs are still evaluated by subject matter experts, ideally resulting in unbound creativity refined to a very specific purpose.

I hope that others will keep participatory tool set on their utility belts, as there are a great many collateral benefits such as enhanced public awareness, transparency and social relevance that can go along with them.

Predictions for Commercial Space in 2009

February 2nd, 2009   By Matt   Filed Under Industry Space  

Clark Lindsey has posted an interesting article on predictions for commercial space in 2009.  As can be expected, commercial access to space remains a critical issue, and Lindsey outlines a number of companies that are making significant progress on this front, including CSA member SpaceX.

So, you may be asking yourself, is 2009 the year we see hundreds of people flying into space?  Probably not.  But 2009 will be spent queuing up for some amazing achievements in 2010.  Regardless of which milestones are achieved during a specific year or not, it is evident that an ecosystem of commercial space companies is getting closer to that critical mass where it truly becomes an “industry” and includes regular operations as well as R&D.

Commercial air travel made a similar transition during the late 1920s and 1930s when the concept of commercial passenger particpation transitioned from tagging along on air mail flights to dedicated passenger transports called “airliners”.  Luckily there are a few lessons learned from these early and exciting days of commercial air travel that we don’t have to relearn for our ventures beyond the earth’s atmosphere.

The FIRST Team

January 20th, 2009   By Matt   Filed Under Student Space  

I love to see things like this.  The endeavours of science and technology professionals are often not recognized until either somthing goes wrong or until they create some kind of major economic impact.  Let’s face it, many of the most interesting technologies are designed to be transparent to the end user.  However, with the emergence of niche media via the internet, we now have the joy of geeky content such as The Guild and Ask a Ninja that is more relevant to youth culture.

There is now a place where the stories of the younger segment of the science and technology future workforce is being told in the form of a web comic about a team competing in FIRST Robotics.  This is a great way to demistify some of the notions about robotics clubs, and to show off how cool it really is.  I have long thought it time to put STEM careers back in the spotlight, and this web comic is doing just that.

Rationale and Goals of the U.S. Civil Space Program

January 12th, 2009   By _randall   Filed Under Babble Space, Big Idea Space, Industry Space, Political Space, Student Space  

The Presidents of the National Academy of Science and the
<http://www.nationalacademies.org/>  National Academy of Engineering have
commissioned a study
<http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/rationale_goals_civil_space.html>  on
the Rationale and Goals of the U.S. Civil Space Program.

In short, the Academies are asking why the nation has a civil space program
(including human, robotic, commercial, and personal spaceflight). 

The study is intended to provide a strategic framework for the nation's
activities in space that can provide consistent guidance in an increasingly
interconnected world. The members of the study committee are interested in
the views (positive or negative) of the general public, particularly those
people with a scientific and/or technological interest.

Please provide input by January 30, 2009!

<post originated from Slashdot>

New web site for nanosat community

December 19th, 2008   By Matt   Filed Under Uncategorized  

For anybody interested in CubeSats, CanSats, or other nano satellite activity, there is a new web site called SEF Spaceworks focused on you.  The site was founded by Professor Bob Twiggs of Stanford University, and Jeffrey Manber a well known space entrepreneur.  With a focus on “Small, Entrepreneurial and Functional” space systems, I suspect this will be an expanding community in the years to come as student projects start to make quicker and more direct transitions into the commercial space market.

It’s a mystery…team

December 11th, 2008   By Matt   Filed Under Industry Space  

Discovery Channel Blog has an interesting look at the mystery surrounding the Google Lunar X PRIZE Mystery Team.

It’s good to see a bit of fun and intrigue around space activities.  It will be interesting to see who is behind this team and if they come out as a frontrunner.

Space Shuttle Makes a Bow Wave in Twittersphere

December 5th, 2008   By Matt   Filed Under Factoid Space  

The sonic boom created by Space Shuttle Endeavor on return from orbit was heard across Los Angeles.  Similar to the way earthquakes have done in the past, the event caused Twitter users who heard the sound but did not know the cause to inquire with each other to determine the cause.  Even more interesting that LA Times picked up the story.

It is fun to see how Twitter is turning humans into sentient sensors roaming around the world publising their data.  Could this be a useful paradigm for planetary exploration?  Hundreds of mini-rovers unleashed on an unsuspecting planetary surface to report back what they find would create a very different data set than those acquired from a single rover.

Many Ways To Participate In Space Enterprise

November 26th, 2008   By Matt   Filed Under Your Work Space  

A new site has launched with the purpose of informing you about opportunities to participate in different aspects of space enterprise. Spacehack uses a well designed blog format to document the many projects at NASA and elsewhere that are designed to benefit from your participation. While the site is still brand new, it already contains a pretty good gathering of participatory space projects.  It will be interesting to see where this leads as a community builds around it and more things are added.  I have to admit, I found myself wondering what the addition of content similar to that found on sites like lifehacker and create digital music would look like with a space focus.

Cal Poly SLO Students Tour Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale

November 10th, 2008   By Thend   Filed Under Industry Space, Student Space  

The California Space Education & Workforce Institute arranged for 5 students from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo to visit Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale on Friday October 24, 2008. The students  received a warm welcome, luncheon presentation, and a mock up tour from the young professionals and staff that currently work there.

The students, accompanied by the Director of the Math Engineering Science Achievement Program (MESA) at Cal Poly SLO, were attentive with lots of questions for the Lockheed Martin employees about the aerospace industry. Most of the students in attendance were at the Junior level in college, and the majority had never visited an aerospace company before.  While all of the students were seeking a career in Aerospace prior to the tour, all felt that the tour sparked their interest even more.  When asked what they gained from the tour the following were some of their responses:

“Before this tour I had little to no prior experience with missiles and defense systems”

“Lots of information about jobs & opportunities”

“Talking with people that actually work in the fields I am considering to get an idea of what they do”

NASA wants your input!

November 3rd, 2008   By Matt   Filed Under Industry Space  

Wayne Hale at NASA has created a blog post asking for your input.  I don’t want to paraphrase the whole thing, but the main point is that NASA is preparing to inform the next president of the agency’s current status and issues.  Dr. Haile is asking for your input on what the largest issues facing NASA are.  This is a great opportunity to participate in your space program.