Monthly Archives: August 2022
Tactical Plans
Deciding where to drive a rover on Mars is a complicated process. We break it down into three levels of fidelity at JPL: strategic, tactical, and supratactical. Strategic planning is long-term thinking on the scale of months to years and addresses questions like roughly where do we want to go, what are the high level…
Wisdom Sits in Places
In school I recall being taught that the land is “sacred” to indigenous cultures in a similar way that a church or mosque may be considered sacred by adherents of that religion. Although there may be some truth to that statement I’ve always found the comparison to be severely lacking in nuance. Wisdom Sits in…
One Thousand True Fans
There’s a concept, popularized by Kevin Kelly, that you only need 1,000 true fans to make it as an artist or creator. You don’t need to go viral, don’t need millions of followers, and don’t need to be a household name. All you need is 1,000 people willing to show up and pay $10 or…
Psychopomps
I don’t consider myself a huge fan of nature waiting in general, but I have come to appreciate writing that explores the intersection of landscape and culture, or as Robert Macfarlane self describes his own writing, the intersection of landscape and the human heart. Macfarlane has a skill to go beyond eloquently describing nature along…
Backyard Astronomy
I have an admission to make. You know all of those stunning new images coming from the James Webb Space Telescope? I haven’t been all that interested in them. I feel like I should be. I’m an amateur astronomer and part of what got me into the hobby as a kid were all of those…
A tidepool has been called a world under a rock
John Steinbeck became a favorite of mine after I read East of Eden, so it’s about time I finally got around to reading The Log of the Sea of Cortez. The non-fiction tale of exploration and adventure chronicles a 6 week journey that Steinbeck made with his good friend and marine biologist, Ed Ricketts around…