This big icy moon is Europa, supposedly there is an ocean under the ice which might hold life. The life part is not all that exciting for me but building a probe to melt through it would be. I havae to do an experiment proving that I can steer a falling ice probe around obstacles. So I need a big vat of ice.....and a small nuclear reactor for my probe.
My sister is commenting sarcastic things about me not writing anything about our baby that is about to be born...not sure what to say sis. He is not born yet, Angie is tired of being pregnant. they want to induce a week early,, I guess this is common now? anyway we don't like that cause we hear it makes for harder natural births. Knowing when the kid was coming and being able to plan for Zeke would be very nice. Angie had the last kid so fast that there wasn't much time for an epi. We hope it goes like that again, but not too fast we want to be able to get to the hospital in time, although having the kid in the Jeep would make a good blog story and save us a lot of money!
On the lifetime burrito front, we went back to Moes for lunch yesterday and I read the fine print. They will supply you with 2680 vouchers based on a normal person eating one a week for 55 years and adding some to that. This to me wasn't really a lifetime supply, kind of a cop out I think. if I had free burritos I would most certainly eat more than one a week, and who knows I may want some after I am 90, they may have to blend it up for me but I still should be entitled to it! But there is the other side, with vouchers I can sell them to my friends for a considerable profit while I am here in Norman!
Doc said that I can use modular framing for my testing bed. This is good news because this stuff is like tinker toys for the man. Really fun stuff, it is expensive. They sell it by the inch (.35) but worth it! but that means that I have to a total redesign and redraw, which is not bad. That will give me a chance to fix several things that I was too lazy to fix before. The motors for this bad boy are DC high wattage motors. I need at least 0-57 rpm with a torque of 51 in-pounds. Enjoying this Aaron? Well they draw 7.1 amps a piece at either 12 or 24 V. What that means...Aaron. is that I also need to buy a new power supply, a big chuck powerhouse and I will have to lay some pretty big gauge wire. I feel like I have prepared for this all my life. Several pieces of the frame will have to be milled out by the NC machine (numerically controlled) I am learing how to do that but need more practice. NC is where the milling machine goes off of the CAD file so there is a very close match to your model. Pretty soon there will be no milling machines it will all be rapid prototype machines that make parts layer by layer. just a bit of prophecy there for free.
Dr Wang is coming today to practice his English, I meet with him every thursday. He goes to the Chinese service at my church and is here from China on a post doctorate program. Post doctorate is for people that still don't want to get a job even after their doctorate degree is done. I am thinking post doctorate in Hawaii or Australia. Doc Miller was talking about sending us to Japan for a semester, I guess that would be ok. don't tell my mother in law.
Dan
Here is us going down into the Wash in the desert. They don't call them dry creek beds, they call them washes. This is the wash that my young friend achieved 47 MPH on. You can see that these Durangos have a huge dashboard, I didn't like them so much, but they were 4 wheel drive and could fit a rover in the back just fine. The one that this picture was taken from I guess got its rear bumper ripped off by a small revene. I am glad it wasn't my fault. The team is back and had a succesful 5K run. Doc is typing up his report now and everything will get submitted by August. I have been told that we will know if we won the next phase o fthe project or not by April. I guess if that happens then we get more money to rip bumpers off of rented durangos. The next test is in the arroyo desert a few miles north of this one, same verse I guess. I will have to buy some hiking boots to replace the ones that got their sould melted off that last trip. The third phase though is in Iceland! now that would be cool...cold. Where you going on your business trip....iceland!
Monday Monday
Here is a young Punk (Matt Roman) fitting the solar panel on the rover for a day of desert field testing. I think this was about 10-11 in the morning and it was already sticking hot. In the background is one of the Durangos that we rented. A little note to self, never buy a rented car (we were pretty hard on them).
It is monday and I am at the office ready to get going again on my testing bed, I think my team is still in the desert but I have't heard anything so I don't know. did you know that in one year and a half period in Minnie pearls life she got 25 proposals? That is just crazy. I finished the autobiography of Minnie while I was in the desert. I am not sure what to read now, maybe a shop manual or something. Well time to get to work, school, play, nap
Dan
back in the office again
Hello fans
I am back from the desert without a tan or a sunburn. It was a good trip, I learned alot and got to eat some good steaks. The little town where we stayed only had one dine in place and they had good steaks. it was called the "town pump" not sure why. Thanks to all the parents that stayed with Angie and all who prayed for her while I was gone, It was a relaxing and fun week for her. After that last two days off I am back in the office today ready to do whatever it is I do here. I am actually working on a testing bed for rovers, have been for a while getting ready to finish up the design part and send it off to Doc to get it approved. I also bought an MP3 player, it is from Hong Kong and kind of cheap. Chalk it up to bad purchase choice. I hope to use while I work at the church on Sundays, we will see if it stays together. Well I best be at it.
Dan
Day 3
Yesterday was interesting; we found out that the power surge did a lot more damage than first thought. The compass and one of the laser range finders were fried. Tension was high in the lab, I went for sandwiches which was nice to get me out of there, going to get stuff is really all I am good for at this point. So we are stuck another day until new parts arrive. Doc stayed and played with the rover last night and the rest of us had a chance to get real food. We went to outback steak house and I had ribs. If God wanted a lot of ribs he would go to Outback!
On the road, day 1 June 13th.
We left Will Rogers world airport this morning at about noon, the ride was pleasant. I read through most of my Minnie Pearl autobiography book, fascinating. I traveled with Zac White an undergrad who is good with computers and is programming the rover. I also traveled with Doc Miller my professor, I never know how much to say with him. His son Bob gave us a ride to the airport in his new Scion minivan which I broke in route, not a real good clothes hanger in the back seat, it snapped with out much tugging from me. They don’t serve peanuts on united any longer, don’t know why. I was really looking forward to peanuts but I got graham cracker teddy bears instead, no wonder they are going bankrupt! We had a layover in Denver where I purchased a nice Italian sandwich from quiznos. Mmmmmm. Actually I am having a great time, I miss my family and I know this will get old very soon but for now it is fun. We landed in San diego and rented a Durango, it was nice but not as nice as the New Jeep Grand Cherokee that the team member that came the day before got. We met him (Matt) at Malin space science, he was frantically trying to put the rover back together. I wondered why he was still working on it and not done until I saw a young blond girl coming up looking for him, tsk tsk. I will have to be the chaperone for all my team members. Well we worked there for another 2-3 hours and then went out to eat. I suggested Chilis but Doc shot that out of the air like a wounded duck, bammm! Doc does not eat mammals, so we end up at a tofu place. The have beef and chicken there but it is all made out of tofu! I complained a little, just enough for them to know where I stand on faux beef. The place next door had a sign for Angus beef in the window, I drooled as I walked by. Tofu is tofu, I had it overseas and it was not good there either. I don’t know why someone would take perfectly good animal feed and make it into human food? After our “meal” we went to frys, which is probably the most wonderful electronics store I have ever been to. This place rocks, they have it all! I mean if God wanted an electronic device or component he would go to frys! After that wonderful experience we came to the hotel to check in. Right now I am sitting in my King size bed in my own room. Now I don’t mean to sound too back hillsish but a room to myself borders on extravagant! So here I am sittin……OK ready for bed. See you tomorrow.
Going on Tuesday now
Just heard word that I will be leaving on Tuesday with Zack (our computer programmer) to go to the desert. I will stay a week and then be replaced by Brandon. This last Tuesday a shaving, from a hole drilled to install GPS, shorted out the power system of the robot. bad news. Matt is frantically working to order new parts for a new power supply plus a spare. That is the beauty of young punk unmarried grad students they can work 14 hour days thru the weekend if needed. I also have been told a little of my role there. I will basically (along with others in need of a degree) be babysitting a robot as it traverses through the desert. So I will walk along the thing making sure it doesn't do something stupid and tumble down something. I have my desrt outfit already mostly planned, I am wearing my hillbilly hat with some shop goggles that have cutting torch lenses in them (I can look directly at the sun). I am looking for some sort of hawaiin shirt that would be tropical yet not flashy. I am also looking for some bright white cotton miami vice pants. I am still debating about the zinc oxide nose paint, purple of course.
Lamaze
We went to our refresher course in Lamaze class last night. We are only going to a few to hit the highlights, I was hoping to miss some of the videos that go along with birth education but they showed one. These videos show a live birth without modesty. What would make a person think that it is ok to have their birth videoed and then have it shown to people all across the country. Maybe they want to help people? maybe they are getting paid huge amounts of free diapers? I odn't know I don't understand. We also did relaxation exercises which where very relaxing, I almost fell asleep several times.
Right now I am working on a testing bed for rover wheels, this is part of my research so I am actually working toward a degree which helps. I took the morning off to spend with Zeke and Angie, Zeke and I built another stunning example of lego bridge engineering. It didn't last long, Zeke likes to run a wrecking ball into any structure we build. He just wants to learn how strong it really is.
Well better go.
Dan
Going to the desert
Well it is official I will be heading to the anzo borrero national park in southern California on the 11th and coming back on the 20th. What I will do there I don't know. Walk around sweating I guess. I worry about my wife, she will still have 4 weeks to go but still worry, I will try to schedule a constant stream of visitors and family to come help her. I am looking forward to eating out a lot, although I think my boss likes Thai food which I have been to Thailand and didn't enjoy the food so I might be going hungry as well. I might be on a blogging hiatus while I am in the desert, darn garnett. you will have to leave me some more comments during this time.
Zeke and I went swimming last night, it is kind of a boring pool for kids. He cannot touch anywhere so all we do is float around and jump off the side. He did flush the urinal in the bathroom until is overflowed, but not to worry there was a drain nearby. Times like those I share my parental wisdom by saying things like "See that is why we don't do that" I think phrases like that would have more meaning to an adolescent if I would have been advising him not to do it in the first place. But you know I can't be expected to foresee the future all of the time.
Dan
Here is Zeker putting the final touches on our biggest bridge thus far. Aunt Silvi gave us a whole bunch of duplos and we make big things on a regular basis. Notice the girder design, homeschool has started already! These bridges are fun because when they fall they pretty much explode in many pieces.
Well we took Zeke to his first Movie last Friday, our airconditioner was being changed so we had to be gone all day. We saw "over the hedge" I would recomend it, the only scary part was the bear but Zeke said he wasn't that scared of him. Our favorite character was the squirel. We have all been walking around saying "I'm a crazy rabid squirel". We had wondered if Zeke would pay attention the whole time but he was enthralled the entire time. Angie and him went home to take a nap and I went back to work. That night we showed Monsters inc outside with the projector for all the neighborhood kids, that was a good time and we got to know some of our neighbors better. Our new neighbors just to the north had a beer party at the same time. They are two girls that just moved in. That party really bothered me, I guess we have been spoiled with great neighbors so far. it is hard to put up with stupid college kids drinking and making out where my kid could see them. I don't know if it was righ or not but we were kind of loud the next morning when we got up early! I even played guitar!
Well better get to work.
Dan
Hello All
Long time no blog, I have been taking a little break after building my first solar panel. It shipped off last tuesday to California for its desert test. I didn't have to go this time but I may have to next time.
This picture is Zeke playing in a mud puddle, this was a parent sanctioned event so he wasn't being bad, I just didn't think he would sit in the mud. We had a good time the 2 days I was at home, we went to the lake yesterday and played in the sand.
Last Tuesday I had to go to the endodontist to get my third root canal. I am becoming quite an expert on tooth work. This one was not as painful as #2 back in Wichita. I told the doc that I don't react to the local very well, he said very well and proceeded to load me up with a lot of it. I was numb for quite a while. In front of the dental chair was a huge picture window overlooking a small flower garden and tree, the effect was quite relaxing as I set there wondering how much this would cost. The motif of the office was cowboys and indians, the wall paper was indian drawings of horses, it was all tastefully done but not what I would have chosen. I set there in the chair wondering how indians had there root canals done, probably with a flint arrow head I thought. the indian dentist would be called something like "makes warriors scream like little squaws". Every time I shell out money for teeth I think how nice it would be to have dentures! During these proceedures my hands take the brunt of my pain, I learned that holding my left thumb inside my right hand allows for the best tension relief. It is kind of like sucking my thumb except without using my mouth. That night the dentist called me and asked how I was doing, Angie talked to him but we both agreed that was nice of him. I guess that much money gets you a call now a days. I also got a free sunday at Brahms, which I thought rather odd since that promotes tooth decay, I brought this up to the receptionist in my best clenched numb mouth dialect. She responded by saying "they have sugar free ones too". Odd. I got home still talking funny and my 2 and a half year old started making fun of me by talking through his clenched teeth "hello daddy". No respect for the pain. I hope I am alive when he needs a root canal, I will remember his joke.
Well I had better get to work.
Dan
