...sort of.

My thruster is behaving in a rather temperamental way. Sometimes it arcs, sometimes it doesn't. I've been telling people that it's like black magic. Although, I've had a few ideas on improving it and it seems to be getting better.

The main issue is that it won't work in high vacuum, only at very low vacuum. I suspect that I don't have a high enough voltage to overcome the dielectric breakdown limit of vacuum (Thanks Trevor!) vapourised metal coming from the front end of the thruster (Eek, my supervisor will have to spend another wad of cash... bye bye $$$). I'm looking to bump it up to 1000 V (shocker!).

Anyhow, at least I'll finish off the year with a Bang before flying back home to Jozi. This is probably my last post for the year. I'll try get a camera next year so I can at least spruce this blog up with some kick-ass pics of my work and friends.

Festive season!

It works!

My very first prototype works! It's a small thruster for maneuvering satellites in space using electric arcs. It's called a vacuum arc thruster (sounds cool, huh?).

It makes tiny little sparks as expected even if only for a short time. Boy, it's a good feeling to finally get some hardware working.

Some of the guys in the lab looked very interested when I got it working. The next step is to ensure that I'm delivering sufficient energy to produce thrust and not just pretty lights.

Last Saturday, I did my first vacuum chamber test of my thruster and was very disappointed that nothing happened. Well, thank goodness that I did it anyway because it forced me to have a closer look at the initiation mechanism.

I think it's time to celebrate!

Dual monitors rocks!

Earlier this week, I decided to finally start making full use of my potential screen real estate and add my work monitor to my notebook screen to achieve *dual-monitor mode*!

I'm using a space wallpaper (CG, but fancy nonetheless) that I got via a Lifehacker post. You can get the full-sized picture from here.


Unfortunately, I don't have a camera to take a picture of my setup, so you'll have take my word for it when I say, "My workstation rocks!"*

*I'm continually amazed at how excited we get about changes to our workstations, or wallpaper for that matter...

Rained out

It's been raining all day.

Luckily when I needed to get to the lab in the morning, it was only drizzling. I even brought along extra pants (I have to cycle 4km to work and I'm too lazy to get rain pants). But now, it's pouring. Eek, I hope it stops when I need to go home.

*Idea!*

What cyclists need is a super-light plastic aerodynamic shell to place over the bike frame or an anti-water force field (human-powered, of course!).

Quickly whipping out my trusty Paint program, I bring the idea to an elegant conceptual design. Smooth, sleek and kiss-ass spoiler included.

Looking back

Looking back over the last 9 months, I'm still amazed at how I ended up studying to become a rocket 'scientist'. Actually, we prefer to be called rocket engineers or propulsion engineers. I know it's nitpicking, but at least I've gotten the chance to rave about it at least once on this blog ;).
Technically, I'm already an engineer and I'm busy doing postgraduate work on a propulsion system. So even though I'm not a propulsion engineer by degree, I'm still doing work on 'rocket science'.

Right, back to the topic.

I've been humbled by the opportunity to study in a beautiful town near the coast called Stellenbosch where there are mountain ranges, clean air, pretty buildings and students crawling everywhere. Next best thing to Caltech, I suppose. But who would've thought?

Last 3 months, I've been working my butt off to get my degree done. Most days, it's hardcore (at least for me!) maths and physics for 9 hours. A brain can only take so much. Other days, I get bored and distracted. Today is one of those days. I think I deserve to take a break every once in a while (as long as my supervisor isn't around).

Yesterday, I spoke at my first aerospace conference. It was awesome, even though it was mostly on UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). It was just me and another guy from my lab that were talking about space-related projects. We attended the last day, which was a special day for students showcasing their graduate projects. I'm glad that I got a lot of positive and encouraging responses from audience members, made a few acquaintances as well as catch up on old ones. I spent waaay too much time preparing for the presentation, especially mentally for the questions afterwards. I think I answered them reasonably and didn't make too much of a fool of myself.

Oh well, plenty long days ahead...

RFID: Scan my hand please...

The use of RFID tags is slowly being incorporated into many areas of our lives. Heck, even my student card has one. It'll only be a matter of time before bar code technology disappears altogether. Tagging products to prevent piracy and track illegal goods has many positive connotations and makes for tighter supply chains in manufacturing. RFID opens up new forms of accessibility not possible before.

However, implanting RFID tags into people to verify identity leaves one feeling cautious and somewhat squeamish. I know I do. Privacy has, is and always will be a never-ending topic of relevance to our lives and our functioning as a society. I fear though, that the technology, like many others, will be pushed into widespread implementation before we can fully grapple with and identify the strengths, weaknesses and effects of implanted RFID tags. A good post to check out is Paul Stamatiou's article on RFID Tags & Privacy.

I would prefer to wait it out before implanting an electronic device in my body. There are just too many unknowns at this point. I'm no electronics expert, so I'm hoping to find out more technical details about the subject. Time will tell...

What is your position on privacy and accessibility?

Hello World!

Hello world! Hopefully, this is the start of something fresh and engaging.

And so it begins...