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Shane Ross: Frequently Asked Questions v11.03.03
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What is the "interplanetary superhighway"? Briefly, the "interplanetary superhighway" is a term used to describe the network of tubes formed by low-energy trajectories connecting the bodies of the Solar System. The trajectories on this "highway" are used by natural objects like comets and near-Earth asteroids and may also be used to design fuel efficient spacecraft trajectories. Find out more here. Chaos theory is the mathematical field of study that attempts to explain the fact that complex and unpredictable results can and will occur in systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions. Such systems include weather patterns, the stock market, fractals, planetary physics, and the motion of some asteroids, comets, and even planets. The classic paradigm of chaos theory is the Butterfly Effect -- a butterfly in China flutters its wings, which triggers a huge, complex series of events that results in a tornado in Texas. Chaos theory explores how a tiny aberration in initial conditions can drastically change the long-term behavior of a non-linear, dynamic system. In mathematics, chaotic systems aren't random -- they're just very hard to predict. Chaos, understood this way, is not the absence of a pattern, but the presence of a very complicated pattern. The reason is that chaotic systems evolve according to rules, thus they are deterministic -- meaning that the outcome depends on the initial conditions which evolve according to those rules. Let me explain further. The idea embodied by deterministic chaos in a system (such as the motion of several planets about a sun, or the weather here on earth, or the stock market, etc.) is the following:
property that imprecise knowledge of the initial condition may lead to unpredictability after some finite time. For instance, with the best possible measuring instruments, we can only (even in theory) predict the weather about one week ahead of time and no further. In other words, we lose predictability in a finite time (namely, one week). This is because, being human, we have imprecise knowledge about things. Exact knowledge is beyond our reach. Thank God, some might say. I suppose you, yes even you, are an example of a chaotic system. You're much more complicated than the weather! Someone might think they know your "state" (your initial condition) and they might even know the laws governing how your state (moods, thoughts, ambitions, etc.) changes with time. But any imprecision in the measurement of your state will lead to total unpredictability in a short amount of time. This is part of what makes interpersonal interaction so interesting - people are unpredictable and it's interesting to see what they'll do next. It's also why dropping balls on to the floor or throwing them up in the air is quite boring - the system is simple and not very chaotic so we know exactly what the ball will do.
For further reading on the subject, I suggest Matthew Trump's "What is Chaos? A five-part online course for everyone." Dr. Trump is a professor at the Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems at the University of Texas at Austin. Or try James Meiss's nonlinear science FAQ. Dr. Meiss is a professor of Applied Mathematics at the Univ. of Colorado at Boulder. For those who are interested, I've also come across an interesting article regarding theological reflections on chaos theory. You can think of a manifold as a curved surface that might be of any dimension. Click here to see a picture of a two dimensional manifold which twists around in a complicated way. Mathematicians like to use manifolds because you can compute useful things using them, like the force of gravity, the weather, and why cats always land feet first. Manifolds come up a lot in physics; enough to make one say, What isn't a manifold?
You can find out from my working abstracts, papers and talks.
Motivated by a question by Jenny Smith's brother, Joey Smith, I started to write some ideas about this question. This is a first attempt at an essay. To echo the words of NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, the space agency needs "not an either/or but a combination" of unmanned and manned flights. President Bush's new budget for NASA gives about $5.6 billion to space and Earth science (unmanned missions) and human space flight -- meaning the International Space Station and the shuttles -- gets $6.2 billion. Unmanned missions have one crucial advantage over human space flights, one this is ever in our mind after the Columbia tragedy of two months ago: Failures are embarrassing but not fatal. Furthermore, robots don't need astronomically expensive safety systems, so the dollar loss is less when a spacecraft goes awry. Some unmanned missions are important for purely scientific reasons, like the Hubble observatory. But others are seen as 'scouts,' which are paving the way for future human explorers. Several missions to the Moon, Mars, or more exotic places like asteroids and Jupiter's moon Europa, have as part of their plan a determination of places which would be best suitable for human presence. But let's get to the crux of your question: 'Why should we even engage in manned space flight?' Motivation. Like it or not, we live in a world where people are motivated by manned space flight. It's part of our desire to explore and adapt to exotic places where we (biologically) "don't belong". If we remove this motivation, less will be accomplished because people will be less motivated. It is difficult to measure the dollar-worth of motivation, but it is significant. Without manned space flight as a goal, I would expect NASA's budget to be cut by a large fraction. Research. Unmanned space probes still have limitations. Humans can conduct valuable field studies far better than any probes. Manned space travel has offered a wealth of biological and medical information that can directly help humans on Earth. Although unmanned probes and satellites are very useful to space exploration, manned space missions are essential to developing a thorough understanding of a particular region or planet. Field Studies. Astronauts are able to conduct field studies, which require observation in the field, the creation of a conceptual model, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. Field study is not a simple matter of collecting data: it requires the guiding presence of human intelligence. Human intelligence is needed throughout a field study, as the requirements might call upon humans to change their course to fit their needs. For example the Mars Pathfinder discovered an unusual, silica-rich type of rock, but because of the probe's limitations, NASA could not determine whether this composition represents an igneous rock, an impact breccia or a sedimentary rock. Another example was the USSR's unmanned Luna missions, which brought back moon rocks during the 1970s. Although the Luna missions were much cheaper than the Apollo missions, the results were virtually incomprehensible because the Luna robots picked up rocks indiscriminately; the Apollo missions had the knowledge and insight of the geologically trained astronauts to decide which rocks were of scientific interest and which rocks were not. Fields studies, which require human presence, can be of great value to the scientific community. Applications. If manned space flight can be made routine, cheap, and easy, suborbital flights might become routine cheap and easy. How much would you pay for a ticket to Australia on a one hour flight? There is almost certainly a large market for suborbital flights, if we can make the cost and danger sufficiently minimal. Organizations such as the X-Prize Foundation have been actively promoting the development of manned space vehicles by private industry to be operated on a commercial basis. The X-Prize challenge is to construct a vehicle capable of sub-orbital flight with three passengers, with the constraint of only allowing 10% of the vehicle dry mass to be expendable, and a turn around of 14 days to re-launch. There is also the possibility of more space tourism. We've already seen two examples of multi-millionaires paying about $20 million for a visit to space about the ISS. In a recent survey, about 30% of Americans, Japanese, and Europeans said that they would be willing to spend a quarter of a year's salary for a trip into space. So if the price for a ticket to spae could be lowered, this market could have tremendous potential. (see spacetoday.net/tourism) War. We have never had war in space, but if war comes, any space-faring nation or coalition of nations will desire the upper hand. One important question is: are humans helpful to war in space? The answer at the moment is possibly yes. Currently computers have a very limited ability to plan and cope with unforeseen events. They will cease functioning if they fall out of communication and they are possibly even prone to subversion. Humans are much more adept at coping with unforeseen and inimical conditions. (see spacewar.com) Capability. There is some difficulty in assessing the value inherent
in having a capability. The cability to send men into space is inherently
valuable, just like any other capability. Some unforeseen problem might
arise requiring men in space. While this value is difficult to assess, it
should not be ignored.
Final Thought. Manned space travel has evolved considerably since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on 12 April 1961. In the past forty years, there were manned missions to orbit, to space stations, behind the moon, and even to the moon's surface. Manned space travel offers the opportunities for scientists to conduct valuable field studies, as well as helping medical professionals better understand the human body. Unmanned probes and space satellites can still be used for many functions such as preliminary reconnaissance missions to collect general data on a planet or region of space, but they cannot replace live humans who can use intelligence to conduct much more detailed and ambitious studies. It would be foolish to discount the uses of both unmanned space probes and manned space missions entirely. It is important for the scientists at NASA to consider the advantages and disadvantages of both manned and unmanned space missions to accomplish their desired goals.
I just do. Maybe it's because there's more stuff in space than on Earth. It stirs my imagination. And no, it isn't empty. You just can't see what's there.
What's the name of the universe? We just call it "the universe". I suppose the Lord of the Universe can name it.
Well, no, not really. You'd just get a whole bunch of steam. You see, the Sun isn't a bunch of fire, it's a very very hot ball of gas that's burning hydrogen in its core. It's doing what we call "nuclear fusion" in it's center where the temperature is millions of degrees. The surface of the Sun is a bit cooler than that, at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But that's much too hot for water to put out the Sun. Besides, where would you get all that water in the first place? The Sun is big enough to fit a million billion Earth's inside. So start diggin' your well now!
Miles across.
Inches across.
Really really small -- smaller than an atomic nucleus. It's something really really small that makes up stuff that you can see and feel. It is so small that there are about a million billion trillion inside you.
No, I haven't. But I want to go. And I haven't met any astronauts yet. Click here for a long list of children's questions (and answers).
A military news publication claims that the military can read the lettering on a basketball from 25,000 miles away. Is that really possible? Yes, this is possible. The Caltech-run Keck Telescopes in Hawaii have the ability to detect, from Los Angeles, the fluttering of a fly's wings on the the Empire State building in New York, which is 3000 miles away. Of course the Keck telescope is earth-based, but a space-based telescope, looking down, can accomplish a similar feat, with the ability to read small letters on a basketball or resolve the weird scar on Mikhail Gorbachev's head and whatnot. Of course, as the link says, this high precision is "weather dependent" when one is viewing through an atmosphere with a time varying index of refraction. In principle, any precision is possible. It all depends on how big an aperture -- read: lens size -- the telescope has. So a big telescope can see small details. The precision of viewing is measured as the smallest angular size that can be resolved. Saying something X big can be viewed from Y far away is the same as saying the telescope has an angular resolution of X/Y (in radians). In fact, European scientists want to use the world's newest and largest telescope -- which "can see a single human hair from 16 kilometres away" -- to see whether the Apollo spacecraft are still on the lunar surface, in an effort to silence claims that the Apollo moon landings were faked. Interestingly, this hasn't yet been done until now!
Yes such stars and planets can exist. One example is a star that gets "ejected" from a galaxy, after a close encounter with another star or the large mass at the galactic center. The Voyager probes have been ejected from our solar system, not galaxy, but that was by design -- we suspect planets like Pluto or Mercury could be ejected after a close encouter with the sun or Jupiter. As to whether they ever form outside of a galaxy, I do not know. But it is suspected that such wandering stars and planets do exist. We are quite deep in our own galaxy and it's hard to see small objects outside the galaxy. When considering this question, I treat stars and planets as the same thing because they are made from the same stuff -- we can call it "light matter" because it interacts with light. Some questions I would have are, what would a wandering star/planet form from? Something would have to be there first, like a star that exploded. But then what did the star form from? Stars tend to clump into galaxies, galaxies clump into clusters (we live in the Virgo cluster) and clusters clump into superclusters, and so on. There seems to be a hierarchy of clustering. So a wandering star/planet would likely come from a place where there is lots of stuff to form from (like a galaxy) and subsequently got ejected. This is if the star/planet is made of conventional matter, like the sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see. Such "conventional matter" (the vast majority of which is hydrogen in the universe) is known to make stars, which explode eventually if they are too big, from which planets form. It is suspected that 99% of the universe may be "exotic" matter which only feels gravity. There may be clumps of this stuff which form outside galaxies, and you could call them "stars and planet" if you like. The rub is that we couldn't see these things, because they do not interact with light. The space between the luminous galaxies may be filled with such things (it has been seriously proposed), but we can't see them. And only by subtle investigation could we ever detect them, through their gravitational influence on galaxies, stars, and you and me. A thing made of dark matter you can call what you want; maybe a dark clump. Make up a name, perhaps.
In mechanics, one says that the "principle of least action", the extremization (minimizing) of the action integral is equivalent to the equations of motion (F=ma). Thus, mathematically, this means that F=ma yields an action integral (integrated along the path of particle obeying the equations of motion F=ma) with the lowest numerical value. Note that (1/2)mv^2 - V(x) , which is called "the Lagrangian function" or simply the "Lagrangian", is not the energy, because of the sign in front of the V. i.e., the energy (also known as the "Hamiltonian function") is (1/2)mv^2 + V(x) The modern view of mechanics would say that "the variational principle" (taking the path which yields zero variation in the action) is equivalent to "the Euler-Lagrange equations" (the equations of motion -- an extrapolation of F=ma). This is called the "Lagrangian view" of mechanics. The "Hamiltonian view" of mechanics starts from conservation of energy and gets F=ma. These yield very different ways of viewing mechanics, which you wouldn't think at first. In fact, quantum mechanics came from Hamiltonian mechanics as a special case of Hamiltonian mechanics. So mathematically, we can literally say that quantum mechanics is a special case of classical mechanics. Weird huh? Now general relativity comes from Lagrangian mechanics. So the irreconcialability of QM with GR is in some way due to the original difference in the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian views of mechanics. There is something deep here which I don't quite grasp. But it is related to your question. The Lagrangian view comes from a variational principle, and you can manually show that F=ma for a system with F=-dV/dx has constant energy. But really, the Lagrangian view doesn't "come from" the energy. It doesn't care. It came from the variational principle of the action, which is an integral of the Lagrangian, not the energy. The Hamiltonian view starts from the energy and yields F=ma. And from F=ma, one can get an integral thing, but the Hamiltonian view has some problems, which currently escape me.
Yes, there are.
What's your job? Good question. People sometimes have a hard time understanding what I do :) Right now, I'm graduate student at Caltech, a major science and engineering university in the Los Angeles area. I am working on getting a PhD, which will probably take me until early 2004. After graduating, I'd like to be professor in a field related to celestial mechanics (the study of the motion of planets, asteroids, etc.), aerospace engineering, and chaos theory. I guess you could call me a "celestial chaotician." I am on a fellowship and get paid to do research and help teach classes about geometry, mathematics, and physics. The research I do involves using a kind of math-- known popularly as "chaos theory" -- to study the motion of comets and asteroids and also to find new ways of sending spacecraft to different planets and moons in the solar system by learning from the celestial dance that comets and asteroids do naturally. I perform simulations on the computer, think about the theoretical aspects of the motion, discuss with other researchers, write academic papers and reports, and even a book is in the works! Some of the most fun work is to think of new interplanetary mission concepts with colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA's lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system, laying the roadmap for future exploration of space. Every month or two, I travel to an academic conference and speak about the research. Many of these conferences are overseas and have been a way I've seen the world. I enjoy what I do (I wish everybody did). In the future, I'd love to be a professor somewhere. Maybe somewhere in the southwest or northeast-- it's all unknown right now. I want to write books too, and inspire the next generation. If the Lord wills, I'd also like to go to space (I'm quite serious).
My other dream, which I affectionately call "Plan B," is to open a little
coffee house which serves white chocolate mochas and hosts local bands.
Suggested names are welcome...
My father's family name being Ross, and my Christian name being Shane, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Shane Ross... I was born to humble California immigrants. Craig, my father from Arkansas and Diane, my mother from Texas, both came to southern California as children and met as students at California State University, Fullerton. I am fuzzy on my earlier ancestry, but like many Americans, I claim a wide range of cultural heritage: Scottish, Irish, English, French, German, Native American, African, etc. In keeping with the myriad traditions such a heritage confers upon me, I must wear my clan's tartan with pride as I drink Guinness and discuss politics, speaking my mind, working hard, and pursuing nature and the spiritual. After being born in Bellflower, Los Angeles County, I spent my first two years in Redlands, San Bernadino County. I remember nothing of the experience. Sentient life really began for me when we moved to Anaheim, Orange County. I spent my entire conscious pre-college life living in the same house just a couple of miles from Disneyland, the self-proclaimed happiest place on Earth. The pop band No Doubt also hails from the "tragic kingdom" as the call it. Tragic, magic, schmagic, I say. It is my hometown and I love it. Unlike No Doubt, I have not yet been given the keys to the city. (A man does not choose his hometown or his native country, and he loves it not because it is great, but for the same reason he loves his family of origin, whom he also did not choose. A man loves his hometown and his country simply because it is his. In this is a great mystery, for marvelling over at another time.) At an early age I showed an interest in LEGOs, swimming, and space travel. I also loved making audio tapes, home movies, drawing pictures, making crafts, and writing computer games -- anything with media. I remember playing with my best friend Allen and building stuff in our backyards (we even made a roller coaster). I was an only child until I was nine years old. Coincidentally, my sister Natalie was born around then, but she didn't talk or walk for a while. Then she did and we would look for stuff to do, and fight some, but now we get along peachy. Right now she's in Texas and is a pillar of her community out there. She's a gifted, if young, performance artist who's been in plays and skits, and produced multi-media presentations. She's also interested in archeology and travelling, but has no website yet in which to tell her own story, save this hurried attempt. A turning point in my story came in fifth grade when I had an inspiring teacher, Mr. Gardner, who had us put on a play, give speeches, write a novel, make a weather station, and study astronomy and politics. (Bob Gardner is now principal of Revere Elementary in Anaheim.) That's also the year I went from the "dumb" reading and math groups to the "smart" ones, and the first time I was picked first when we'd play sports at lunch. I loved playing American football, especially catching interceptions. Junior high was difficult for a while because of the gang problem at the school. But I found another love while there -- journalism, especially editorial writing. High school was much better because the gang members who wanted to be full-time thugs had dropped out. I was part of a lot of clubs and organizations, but the days of doing community work with Key Club stand out as the most rewarding. It was during high school that I had an early life crisis, or perhaps an epiphany, as everything turned out for the good. You see, I wanted to go to the Air Force Academy so I could fly F16s and eventually fly NASA's Space Shuttle. I went to Air Force bases and talked to all sorts of military people about it. But I was also developing a strong interest in astrophysics, religion, and neuroscience, due mostly to popular science books by the amazing auther Paul Davies. I decided I'd rather study astrophysics than enter the military, so I ditched the Air Force thing and found out about Caltech -- which as far as I could tell would be the best school for someone like me. So I got accepted and came to this place. Yadayadayada. I got my undergraduate degree in Physics in 1998, but didn't know what to do next. So I wandered alone through the woods in the Pacific Northwest for forty days and forty nights. Seriously. When I emerged, I had a big beard and a better understanding of my purpose. So I worked for a year in the hire of JPL and then went back to grad school at Caltech. Yadayadayada. Now I do computational math, in particular "chaos theory," as applied to celestial mechanics -- the motion of objects in space under the influence of gravity and any other strange forces which may lurk out there. Some big influences on my life have been my family, especially my warm and loving parents, Craig and Diane. Both of my parents were in law enforcement, and for good reasons that stemmed from their passions. They encouraged me to do follow my passions and I am very grateful for them. My friends have also been a big influence in my life. Some I've had since I was in junior high (some since third grade!). We've kept in touch all this time and I think it's great. I've met many friends since third grade too, especially since the beginning of the Clinton Administration. You'll come across many of these friends if you explore this website. Maybe we'll all be barbeque neighbors some day and our kids will play together. Finally, my relationship with God has had a huge influence on my life. The God of the universe, as expressed through Jesus of Nazareth, his followers, and God's very spirit, has sustained and guided me, through all my ups and downs. It is in Him and through Him that I and all others have their being, God being the one who undergirds all of existence and all that is true and good. I've been a Christian since I was about fifteen years old. Though I've had significant lapses in my following of his moral teachings since then, God is faithful to take me back and call me his son. He is my Heavenly Father and to him I am eternally grateful. One day I can share that gratitude with him, as one day we will meet each other, face to face. So there you have it. One day I'll get a PhD. One day the sky will fall. And many other things will happen too. That's my story in a nutshell. So what's your story?
My passions are traveling, hiking, and creating... Fortunately, I've been able to travel to many places, mostly around Europa and North America. I enjoy going to a new town, like the little ones outside of Dublin, Ireland, and walking around with friends, just exploring, talking to folksin pubs, climbing around ruins. I also love hiking, biking, and camping. Taking a week and exploring some uncharted territory in the Sierras sounds like a great way to spend time. I love nature in its extreme manifestations, like endless sand dunes, high seacliffs, alpine glaciers, volcanos, lightning (!), most parks in Utah, and big big waves. I've tried surfing, but haven't stood up on the board for more than a few seconds yet, and certainly can't handle those big big waves yet. Got surf? I get recharged hanging out with friends. Dinner parties are fun, and so is lounging at a coffeeshop, reading some poetry, going to a play, an art gallery, etc. I also get recharged by reading a lot; you know, nonfiction, novels, news and political magazines, etc., my favorite authors are C.S. Lewis, Kathleen Norris, Richard Neuhaus, Paul Davies, Philip Yancey, J.R.R. Tolkien, and of course Paul of Tarsus. Just for the record, I like movies too, but see them rarely `cause I'm picky. I threw TV out of my life years ago and haven't regretted it except during the Superbowl. I don't want a cell phone because life's complicated enough, and only recently considered entering the 80s by getting a pager. I also keep strange hours, and am very fun late at night (I wrote this late, which may explain some things.) Yes I am, and have been one (seriously) since I was about fifteen years old. It was at that time that I read a contemporary version of the gospels which tell the story of Jesus. I had reached my "age of accountability" and had to make a decision. If you've seen The Matrix, you could say I chose the red pill, chose to pursue reality. So far, my pursuit has led me to believe that Jesus is somehow the son of God. He was killed as a political rebel by the Roman Empire and as a blasphemer by the Jewish religious establishment. All his friends and followers abandoned him in his time of need. And beyond all this, he was abandoned finally by God. (What does it mean?) Eyewitnesses claim to have seen him alive afterward and believe him to be alive eternally, a preview of how we will live eternally. I am fuzzy on the details of where he is now, but I presume he is at least "nearby" right now, because he promised he would be. He also promised he would come to Earth again in bodily form. Soon that day will come. Or else it is all a great lie, perpetuated through the ages, and I and all other Christians deserve your pity. If you believe it to be a lie, would you please let me know and give me your reasons. It's quite important, you see. Anyway, my relationship with God has had a huge influence on my life. The God of the universe, as expressed through Jesus of Nazareth, his followers, and God's very spirit, has sustained and guided me, through all my ups and downs. It is in Him and through Him that I and all others have their being, God being the one who undergirds all of existence and all that is true and good. I've been a Christian since I was about fifteen years old. Though in my past I've had significant lapses in my following of his moral teachings, God is faithful to take me back and call me his son. He is my Heavenly Father and to him I am eternally grateful. One day I can share that gratitude with him, as one day we will meet each other, face to face. I'm not the member of any particular church, though I regularly attend a Four Square Church and lead a Bible study at a Congregational church. Really it's my Christian friends who I've known since college who are "my church" in the truest sense. We carry each other's burdens and share each other's joys. The prayer I make every day is to love God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love my neighbor as myself. You can learn a bit more about my faith from some thoughts I've written down. I have yet to fully write out my testimony. I'm also trying to write one of my favorite passages in online form, Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. And I think my favorite of all is Paul's "hymn to love." I ask for God's strength to help me live up to these commands and live a life of love.
It's called the New English Bible and I was introduced to it by my mom's father. In 1946, as a result of an initiative taken by the Church of Scotland, delegates from the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and the Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational churches met to lay plans to produce a completely new English translation of the Bible. These churches were joined by the Presbyterian Church of England, the Society of Friends, the Churches in Wales, the Churches in Ireland, The British and Foreign Bible Societies, and the National Bible Society of Scotland; and work began in 1948. Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church of England and Scotland attended as observers. The first edition of the NT was released in 1961, and the complete translation, including the OT, was published in 1970, available with or without the Apocrypha. It was well received in Great Britain and in the United States, despite its British idiom. The NEB translation is freer than either the KJV or the RSV. Rather than presenting a word-for-word translation, it attempts to reproduce the meaning of the text in contemporary language. For the American reader, it is important to remember that the NEB was intended for a reader familiar with British rather than American English. The NEB includes words that are in use in Britain or Scotlan, but which are unknown to the average American reader. As a term for a pile of stones used as a memorial, the Scottish word "cairn" appears 6 times, for example, and the word "hind" for a female deer is better understood by Americans as "doe". Overall, the NEB does what it was supposed to do, offering a valid reproduction of the thought behind the Scriptures to the contemporary reader of British English.
Here's a look at a random slice of 48 hours from May 2002.
>> Sunday <<
midnight-1:30am Left a wedding and hung out with some people at the
wedding at one of their houses and had coffee.
1:30am-7:30am Slept at home.
7:30am-8:00am Got up and got ready for the day.
8:00am-9:30am Met with a friend for breakfast.
9:30am-11:00am Went to the university office where I do most of my work.
I checked email from colleagues and worked on the
computer, trying to figure out how to compute paths for
spacecraft using a new way.
11:00am-1:00pm Went home, thought about going to church in the morning,
but fell asleep since I was tired.
1:00pm-2:30pm Met with another friend for lunch.
2:30pm-4:00pm Talked to some friends and relatives over the phone.
4:00pm-5:00pm Drove down to Redondo Beach, in the south part of LA.
5:00pm-6:00pm Had dinner with a friend down there who is leaving for
Wales in Britain for a few months as part of his job.
6:00pm-8:00pm Went to that friend's bible study; everyone prayed for my
friend's trip and safe return.
8:00pm-9:00pm Had some coffee and hung out in Redondo Beach.
9:00pm-10:00pm Drove back to Pasadena.
10:00pm-
>> Monday <<
-4:00am Worked on designing a space colony which would hold 10,000
people. I was working with a group of 5 guys and we had
to stay up because we were getting ready for a
presentation which was coming up.
4:00am-5:00am Did some work over the computer with colleagues in
Europe, who were just finishing lunch.
5:00am-9:30am Slept at home.
9:30am-11:00am Did some work on a space colony presentation for later
that day.
11:00am-12:00pm Met with my PhD adviser about my plans for this month.
12:00pm-3:00pm Worked on space colony presentation.
3:00pm-4:00pm More work on the computer about designing spacecraft paths.
4:00pm-4:30pm Talked on the phone.
4:30pm-5:30pm Met with a research colleague here to discuss our plans
for doing research about interesting comet and asteroid
motions in the next couple of years.
5:30pm-7:00pm Went home and slept.
7:00pm-9:30pm Out to dinner with friends (I rarely cook).
9:30pm-midnight Coffee and talking, then some light reading.
In the future, I'll give you charts and plots of the average activity as
a function of time of day if you're interested.
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