The first professional project I worked on as a team member was a system to measure 3D dispersion of liquid natural gas (LNG) in the event of a spill. I was a technician then working under the auspices of Lawrence Livermore Lab folks. They inspired me to go for an engineering degree.
My first project as a degreed engineer was developing a sensing system using meteor-burst communications to remotely measure ground water depth throughout the state of Nevada.
My first projects after my masters degree were developing space-based instrumentation to measure various “earth” characteristics. I got to design some interface networks for the IR sensors on Hubble before it launched. I worked on the sensing networks at the proposal stage for Gravity Probe B. It launched 20 years later. The potential for searching for water on Mars became an interest at this time, so did the prospect of mining asteroids. These projects were the inspiration to obtain a PhD in geophysics rather than electronics – knowing the science behind the measurement would help develop better instruments.
My second-to-last professional project was as SME on the IR science channels for NASA’s latest CERES satellite.
My last professional project was developing an instrument for measuring Langmuir waves in a free electron plasma at the near-surface of the moon. Think of measuring the flux on the surface of a plasma ball.
“Geophysics” indeed!
I’m reminded of a recent meme: “They were talking about 30 years ago: I thought ’70s, they meant ’90s“
So it goes, here I am.
I’ve been sorting through my files and thought I’d put up to the public some of the notes and articles I’ve developed or been exposed to over the years decades.
A lot of interesting stuff gets collected over the years …