I decided to replace my existing flat-pack desk  with a better, purpose built computer desk. Since I’m still limited by a lack of decent woodworking tools, the construction and planning was governed by ease of disassembly and availability of commercial parts. Click below for more.

A long while ago, I generated some ideas and settled on a derivative of a write-up that featured the Vika Inge legs and kitchen countertop from IKEA. Creating the new desk languished on my to-do list long enough where IKEA discontinued the legs that I wanted. Never fear, craigslist to the rescue. After I received the legs, I started to figure out how to make solid wood desktop rather than the veneer+particle board that is prevalent in most box store aisles. The most cost effective way about this was acquiring a custom edge-grain maple butcher block. I ordered this from AWP Butcher Block out of House Cave, KY with the following specifications: blonde color,  48 in. long x 25 in. deep x 1.5 in. thick, and a lacquer finish. I also had them put a half-bullnose round on the front edge to save my forearms. It’s a really nice product, they were great to deal with in placing my custom order, and they beat their shipping estimate by a full week.

The real goal of building a new desk was to get all of my desktop’s computer cables off of the floor, as well as reclaiming a little desk space by using a LCD arm. On to the construction. Here’s the parts that I gathered:

• Maple Butcher Block Top
• 3M Adjustable Under-desk computer mount
• Rockler Extra Large Pencil Drawer
• Tripp-Lite PS3612 12-outlet power strip
• Ergotron LX LCD Desk Arm Mount
• Flexible Wire Duct McMaster #69775K12

The legs went on first.

Then the pencil drawer, the computer mount, and the power strip:

Then the LCD arm:

I wish I could have kept the overall cost down a little bit (the pencil drawer and the LCD arm were a little more than I wanted to pay), but I expect that I’ll have this desk for a good many years to come. I’m really happy with how sturdy it is. I’m already looking at some future improvements including some mounts for my Z-5500 speakers and flush USB ports. That’s for another day.

Part II of my saga to witness a shuttle launch… In the first week of May, the launch of Endeavor STS-134 was postponed to May 10. At that time, I rescheduled with Florida Dolphin Tours (FDT) for a mere administrative fee of $25. When we scheduled the first time, we received a blue ticket and a green ticket. The blue ticket was good for getting into the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSCVC) and the green ticket was for getting the “better” (but much harder to get) tickets on the causeway. This was a mere ~6 miles away from the launch pad. Click below for more… 

(Images link to nearly full resolution photos) The launch was due for at least a few more delays until May 16. I learned my lesson from the first scrub to wait to book hotel, flights, and rental car until the last few days. I also booked with jetBlue, which has a slightly cheaper fine for changing flights than US Airways (not to mention blue potato chips!). My itinerary this time was also more mindful on minimizing price and less considerate on my stamina. I also pack very light: (North Face Surge Backpack, Canon XSi, and 100-400mm lens).

I had to waste some time in Orlando until the 11PM pickup time on May 15, so I decided to check in my hotel early in the afternoon just so I had someplace to sit and not fall asleep. Catching FDT’s bus from Orlando went without a hitch, and we arrived at the KSCVC early enough that we were queuing outside the main gate for them to open. We milled about the rocket park and the exhibits waiting to board the bus for another trip to the causeway. Everyone was anxious and many had been there before, so they immediately started to line up at the bus area. There was a beautiful waxing gibbous moon that night, so I grabbed some photos of the rocket garden with the moon in the background. I’m still terrible at night shots.

Finally, we boarded the buses and hurried up to wait some more on the causeway! We arrived when it was still night around 4:30AM. If you squint, this photo is in focus (Click for the bigger one, it looks better.)

Behind us there were tents for memorabilia, food, portable toilets, and a USPS tent for mailing letters to get that unique stamp cancellation. I still had my ICOM handheld with me, but I didn’t need it since there was a loudspeaker close enough to hear updates.

Everyone was a little apprehensive of the launch throughout the morning as twilight broke. First, it was announced at 7:00AM that a tile on the hatch got chipped during closeout procedures. This was repaired in time. However, bad cloud cover was threatening until the last 10 minutes prior to the launch window. The release of the final countdown hold at 9 minutes went by in an instant. I had been waiting for this for a few months, and was working on very little sleep since 3AM the previous morning. The orbiter access arm retracts first, then the oxygen vent arm, then main engine start at t-6.6 seconds…

T-0,  Launch!

Absolutely worth the time, the money, the effort to see this. The sound is difficult to describe. It hits with a roar that has a a hundred bass drums on it. Well, I’m not a poet. It’s close to this, except you can feel it in your stomach.  We lost sight of Endeavor much too quickly into the low cloud cover, but you could still see the glow as it raced through our atmosphere.

I made the goal about two months ago that I would like to see the penultimate Shuttle launch, and the final launch of the Shuttle Shuttle Endeavour (STS-134) from as close as I possibly could. There are several options, the best of which is purchasing tickets to the causeway through a tour company. I was able to get the $169 VIP package  through Florida Dolphin Tours. I highly recommend them for the last shuttle launch if you’re able to reserve them for their great communication and professional staff. They have been helpful throughout this entire experience.

The package includes a few tickets: one blue ticket to get into Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, one Green Launch Transportation Ticket (LTT) and a wristband for our tour company’s bus. For the 3:47 PM launch on April 29, we left a mall in Orlando, FL around 6AM. Once we arrived at Kennedy, we got off the bus went through security, and had an opportunity to mill around and enjoy the displays. Meanwhile, our buses were being screened more thoroughly. The morning ended up being a little rainy, but ended up clearing up really nicely in the afternoon. 

The Orion Abort Tower on display at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

Once we boarded the buses and got closer to the causeway, I turned on my ICOM ICT8-1A to listen in on 146.940, which had a re-broadcast of NASA voice traffic. (I missed the call-sign of who was doing the broadcast.) Just as we were about to arrive at our final destination on the causeway, I heard the call for a scrub on my radio. I turned the radio off since I didn’t want anyone else to get upset before the official word came through our tour guide five minutes later. NASA allowed us to get off the bus on the causeway shore for 10 minutes before we had to make a U-turn and head back to Orlando. There wasn’t much time to set up my tripod with my Canon XSi (it was very windy) but I managed to get a few photos of the shuttle in launch configuration (above). Definitely a disappointing day to go home empty handed, especially at t minus three hours. It turns out there’s a problem in the Load Control Assembly (LCA) which will require a lengthy replacement. At the present time, it looks like STS-134 will be rescheduled No Earlier Than (NET) May 8, 2011 at 12:05 PM**. Florida Dolphin Tours told us that the tour can be re-booked, but we have to wait for word from NASA on the official re-scheduling which will come this afternoon on NASA TV. I’m going to do my best to attend again.

**UPDATE: As of 5/2/2011, the revised launch date is now NET 5/10/2011 at 11:17 AM. As of 5/6/2011, the revised launch date is now May 16 at 8:56AM!

I found this great 1933 vintage “Balanced Recipes by Pillsbury” in a stamped aluminum Art Deco binder. I think it’s rare to find a book that looks like an appliance, and this is definitely a collection that can take a good beating in the kitchen. The previous owner made good use of the binder by handwriting and typing their own recipes in the appendix. One of the last pages in the binder reads:

Additional copies of this ultra-modern cook book may be obtained by mailing $1.25 or you need send only $1.00 if you include a recipe slip from a sack of Pillsbury Best Flour.

Click the images for high resolution.

In May 2009, I was the mechanical engineer on the sprint drive system (as well as team captain for the school) for the ASME Solar Splash competition. I figured it was about time I get some pictures up of the event and the work that we did.

Full writeup to come this weekend.

I had a bunch of BNC right angle, straight, and T connectors, so I decided to make another lamp. Click the picture for more.

I didn’t want to purchase anything for the lamp except the polycarbonate diffuser rods, which is McMaster #8571K44. The 5/16″ diameter rods were cut to length and a 3/16″ hole was drilled through the center to fit over the LED.

The individual blue LEDs have a 68 Ω resistor soldered in series, and a 5V power supply to the entire thing with the center as the positive rail. Wiring LEDs in parallel can be a bad idea, so the resistor is out of necessity. The LEDs were sanded down to size with a dremel. Click the pictures to make them big.

Sanded LED on top

Soldering the 68 Ω resistor to the LED

Almost there…

LED origami

I came across this article on wikipedia, so I decided to make my own. A lot of Inkscape and an order through Ponoko, resulted in the following. I have to make some matching brass hardware to hold the pieces together.

I’m selling a 3.9″ diameter version on Ponoko, with a price point that’s actually very close to Ponoko’s laser cutting cost. I have to play around with their system to see if I can lower the cost. I’m working on custom date ranges. Click here for my Ponoko store.

Google’s Sketchup, which is free (as in beer), is a great tool for sharing concepts and product designs. I decided to rough out a workbench for my apartment using it, and then build it to see how well it integrates in the design process. I had a few ideas what my workbench should be: made out of 2×4′s, have a 4′x2′ top, be about 30″ tall, be built for under $50, and disassemble fairly easily. The size of the top was based on what was easily available and to minimize the cut list, and the height seemed comfortable to me.  Build time was about 2 hours working with a circular saw and would have been a great deal faster with a chop saw. Sketchup was nice to use, and a good alternative for this level of project.

This workbench isn’t meant to compete with a mortise and tenon woodworkers bench. This is held together with desk screws and made of pine. It’s good for light duty work. What’s nice about these 2″x4″ workbenches is that they’re so cheap, and easily modified. Need mount a power strip or attach a pegboard? Just get those deck screws out.

Click the link below for design files and bill of materials.

Design Files

You can download the Sketchup files here. (Please consider donating $1 using the Paypal button on the right sidebar).

Bill of Materials

• (1) 2′x4′x3/4″ table top – Hardboard or otherwise
• (4) 30″ Legs
• (3) 48″  Front and back horizontal rails
• (4) 21″ Upper and lower frame pieces
• (1) 2-1/2″ 1lb. box of deck screws
• (6) 1-1/4″ desk screws for workbench top

The total came to about $38 with materials from Lowe’s.

The holiday brings new things into library that I will quickly consume over the course of a month. This book, or should I say compendium, will not be completed in a few years for the fear that I otherwise be accused of hubris.  TASCHEN’s  “Leonardo da Vinci – The Complete Paintings and Drawings” is a 12 pound, 695 page, 15.4″x10.2″x2.4″ collection of his life’s work. Do not be led to believe that this even begins to scrape the surface of Leonardo’s 13,000 known notebook pages. To my knowledge, there is no single source for all of his works. We are still finding pieces (even underneath other works) after almost 500 years.

The collection is primarily an art book and is divided in three sections: a biography of his life and work, a catalogue raisonné of paintings, and a selection of his graphic works.

The pieces are presented as they are, with a little information on the bibliographical sources to accompany them. The paintings for the most part can be appreciated and studied as they are presented, which are sometimes duplicated in a cropped and zoomed two-page spread. One of the areas where the book shines is including the under-sketches and practice drawings hat went into the paintings. The scientific discussions and mechanical drawings leave me wanting more though. Translations and commentary would make this volume indispensable. Quote Leonardo: “Let no man who is not a Mathematician read the elements of my work.”  It does include references in the back of the book for concurrence of numbering systems between different volume, as well as a huge bibliography.

TASCHEN, overall did a great job compiling this quality book. The size, glossy pages, and ordered presentation are  appreciated for studying his work in detail.  At $45, it’s almost a steal.

On June 9, 2009, I had the opportunity to experience microgravity aboard NASA’s Microgravity University outreach program. This account follows what the Dusty Plasma Team-II (DPX-II) and I did in our time at the Johnson Space Center and Ellington Field where the flight was from. In addition to microgravity, we had the convenience of “flying” in a hypobaric chamber to 25,000 ft, toured the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, and inspected our country’s progress toward the 2019 Moonshot.

I collected thoughts on the experience, some of the neat things I saw, as well as a short discussion of our experiment.

EDIT: WIRED.com did a feature on us here!

Our experiment is worth a small introduction. We began in November 2008 with an application to NASA for the flight. Application is open to national US undergraduate universities that require microgravity for an experiment. It’s a competitive process that determines who has a good plan to make good science in microgravity. Out of 70 teams that apply, less than 30 make it to Houston. This preliminary process determines whether your team has “the right stuff” to complete a project in the time allotted and an experiment worth being placed in microgravity.

The physicists on the team had flown a similar experiment in the previous year, and it had done well. They changed some of their science, and wanted to build it better, so they recruited two mechanical engineers (Chris and I). Our team works in conjunction with an adviser, Dr. Andrew Zwicker, at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. I worked closely with my The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) engineering adviser, Bijan Sepahpour. During our preparation, we were able to draw on PPPL’s and TCNJ’s resources in order to complete the project.

We had to wait a while before we heard back from NASA, especially since the entire program was set to be axed by Congressional budget cuts. I wish I knew why Congress hates science so much.

After being accepted, we had one of two flight dates to choose from; April and June. We chose the latter. The last month leading up to our departure was very hectic. I was heading the construction of this project, as well as wrapping up TCNJ’s entry in the 2009 Solar Splash Competition. In fact, the day after that I came back from the Solar Splash Competition in Arkansas (a 24 hour drive) I had boarded a plane for Houston, TX.

Making Dust Float

The basic premise of our experiment was to visualize the behavior of dust in plasma during microgravity. Plasma is the stuff that stars, lightning, and neon signs are made of. Scientists are interested in this because of certain industrial processes performed with semiconductors and the majority of the stuff in the known universe is plasma. It’s the most abundant state of matter, and holds some really interesting promises for generating massive amounts of power in the future. How did we study this? We start with a small vacuum chamber with two electrodes in it that are held at a potential of about 400 V, 1-2 mA. Dust is placed in the chamber, and a vacuum is pulled to about .1 Torr (atmospheric pressure is 760 Torr). The chamber is backfilled with a Argon, and a plasma forms. The dust floats inside the plasma (more correctly a DC Glow Discharge) by the effects of gravity and the electrodes. The shape of the dust cloud changes in microgravity, which is one of the more interesting phenomenon that the physicists are interested in. Data is then collected by two video cameras (one wide and narrow angle) that is fed live into a desktop computer. To visualize the shape of the 3-D dust cloud, we use a laser sheet that illuminates a 2-D cross section. During the flight, we planned on modifying the voltage, chamber pressure, and position of the laser.

In order to fly with NASA, we had to prove two things. First, we had to accomplish the goal collecting data on the behavior of dusty plasma. Second, and more importantly, the design had to maximize safety for the occupants of the aircraft by conforming to their regulations on size and permissible equipment. So in several last submissions to NASA, the design was proven to complete these two objectives and documented as such.

Now, this is a lot of equipment, and our final apparatus reflects this. It ended up weighing 295 lbs, just short of the 300 lbs NASA limitation. Aluminum extrusions were used for the skeleton. The largest offenders of weight was the dry vacuum pump (67 lbs) and computer (27lbs).

The project had shipped ahead of us packed by the shipping gods at PPPL in a 600 lb (!!!) wood container directly to Ellington Field.

Ellington Field

Our time over the two weeks our team spent in Houston was filled with NASA activities and tours, preparing the experiment, or sleeping. We had ample work to do before our flight since the entire experiment had to be assembled and last minute pilot tests completed at Ellington Field. The aircraft hanger and field that we worked out of was where the flight would be coming from and housed the NASA Microgravity Office. We shared a hanger with a WB-57F, a high altitude weather reconnaissance jet that is one of two still operating in the world. It can hold 6,000 lbs in cargo to a flight ceiling in excess of 60,000 ft (~11.4 miles!!) Just outside our hanger was the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a heavily modified Boeing 747 to ferry the shuttle from alternative landing sites back to the Shuttle Landing Facility.

Some of the more important pre-flight activities for the experiment included a Test Readiness Review (TRR) that was the final safety check performed by 20 NASA engineers and specialists.

Hypobaric chamber

NASA Microgravity University is unique in that we are not just passengers, but considered flight teams and mission crew. As part of the team’s-flight activities, NASA requires that participants get an FAA flight physical and be well versed in emergency procedures for the flight. This includes knowing how to find and use the oxygen hoods in the event of cabin decompression. As an extra measure, they put us through a standard hypoxia training profile in a hypobaric chamber. This simulates the decrease in atmospheric pressure and oxygen that one would see at 25,000 feet, which is 4000 feet below Mt. Everest’s 29,029 ft summit. At 25,000 feet, the air pressure is 37.65 kPa (sea level is 101.33 kPA).

The “flight” transition to this altitude where they decrease the chamber’s pressure can cause quite a bit of discomfort in the ears. The Valsalva maneuver is recommended, and was taught to us by the staff in addition to other information about what happens to our bodies in this environment. The chamber sat approximately 14 of us at a time, so the groups were split up. We were fitted with flight masks and “snoopy” caps that would give us communication in the chamber. After getting to 25,000 ft in about 15 minutes, we were told to remove our flight masks that had been feeding us 100% Oxygen. We were to identify our symptoms of hypoxia and complete as much of a worksheet as possible. It had some math on it, silly visual illusions, and places to write the presidents or our names. Hypoxia symptoms include feeling giddy and lack of judgement. I felt fine, but other than some flatulence (little fart becomes very big and wants out because of the drop in pressure) After about the three minute mark, I didn’t feel like doing the math problems or much of anything. After five minutes, the masks go back on, and then they bring us back down. The supervisors of this test have great fun identifying people that “aren’t all there” and tend to say silly things. The fellow next to me seemed like he was getting aggressive after he tried to take a swing at me with his fist right before our masks went back on. Reactions due to lack of oxygen vary greatly.

The Flight

Microgravity can be had in three ways: falling, orbiting, and getting really far away from any gravitational source. Getting in orbit or away from the earth costs a few billion right now, so that’s out. The best way then (not in a vacuum) is to fall by putting an airplane temporarily in freefall.

The government has this little policy to make every effort to outsource services to other companies. So with the introduction of the Zero-G Corporation, NASA no longer runs their own microgravity flights aboard the KC-135 Stratotanker. Zero-G is famous for running 15-parabola $5,000 flights for anyone with the cash aboard a 727. No problem, right? Well, NASA has experience behind them for one. There is a certain “quality” of parabola that one must hit to simply make a good microgravity environment and good science. The trick is to impart as little acceleration to the apparatus inside the cabin. And I think that our data may show that the NASA pilots may be better, but it’s too early to speak yet.

In the morning, we don our flight suits, get a briefing, and board the aircraft. It really moves quite quickly. The entire flight over the Gulf of Mexico only lasts about 90 minutes, and we have 30 parabolas to do our work. As a bonus we do Moon (awesome!) and Mars gravity (less awesome!) on the last two parabolas. The majority of the cabin that we work in has 1-in. padding and the passenger seats in the back. There are about 6 teams on board with three people each in addition to NASA and Zero-G personnel. The NASA staff, in blue flight suits, act as the “enforcers” that look for people doing stupid things (like not getting down when we are about to lose microgravity) or holding down sick people. The weightlessness we experience is about 0.1 of earth’s gravity. The moon is 0.165-g and Mars is 0.376-g of our nominal 1-g living conditions.

Before the flight, they also give us a gem of a medicine: SCOP-DEX. It’s a JSC-only available mixture of 0.8mg Scopolamine and 5mg of Dexedrine. It’s basically an upper and a downer that is supposed to counteract the effects of motion sickness. While this is very effective, the downer tends to hit you later and knocks you out for the rest of the day.

Microgravity

Probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done.

Microgravity is a funny thing. It hits some harder than others and in unpredictable ways. We were told many times to eat our normal breakfasts. “But then you’ll vomit!” Exactly. You WANT to vomit. You want your body to do it’s thing that is ingrained in our bodily functions because its’ unhappy. After that, you feel better. And surrounding monkeys won’t eat what you ate this morning because that food will make them sick.

So… I lost my breakfast twice on the flight. I didn’t miss a parabola stuck in a seat in the back, though. Pulled out my vomit bag, lost what I needed to, and then continued having fun. It’s a weird little panic that sets in. “Shit, I’m gonna puke… Gotta puke. Gotta puke.” And you don’t think of the convenient vomit bags tucked away in your flight suit. So you scramble around a little bit and then remember you are prepared for this. Sit down, hold the bag with two hands, and a NASA staffer in a blue flight suit will hold you down. It actually stays in the little flight bag pretty well through the microgravity portion since there isn’t much acceleration imparted on things to go anywhere.

Enough talking about that.

Aside from that… damn. That was really fun. Microgravity is made of smiles and puppy dog tails. You look around slowly with everyone floating and working feverishly, and you can’t imagine extending this experience into the weeks that the astronauts preform. It’s incredible. There’s no way being weightless could ever be routine. I could do it forever. It is not comparable to SCUBA diving, or anything that I have ever experienced. I took time to enjoy it and thought carefully about what was going on, but it still went too quickly. At 20 to 25 seconds per microgravity parabola, it doesn’t last forever.

Interacting with objects is the most fun. Imparting spins on things and watching them go or just snatching things out of the air. We missed two flying object debris hazards in our preparation, but I grabbed them as they left the experimental enclosure and put them away in the flight suit.

I couldn’t concentrate on anything with the experiment and depended heavily on my amazing teammates. Anytime I looked at a knob, I would get this tunnel vision that made everything spin. So I kept my gaze distant and not focus on anything in particular. I goofed around a little for the photographer. All of the new people chose to lie down during the 2-g portion, but the flight photographers toughed it out and stood up. I can’t imagine what that feels like.

Other sights

Part of Microgravity University is showing how great NASA is (which it is). Some of the better things I got to see was a ready-to-fly Saturn V rocket on display. Absolutely huge. I’m glad that the new Constellation program is returning to these massive rockets. We also saw the mission control rooms for the ISS, shuttle, and the Apollo program that coordinate with other rooms around the world. STS-125 had just returned on a Hubble repair mission in the previous week, so there was a crowd in the control room hanging the traditional mission plaque.

Celebration in Mission Control

Robonaut!

THE consoles where flight engineers sat during from Apollo all the way through some of the shuttle flights (really!)

Cigar smoke from our nation’s moon landings still permeated everything in the Apollo Mission Control. In the corner is a flag that went to the moon and came back. NASA has quite an artifact collection.

Neutral Buoyancy Lab

Wow. A 6.2 million gallon (202 x 102 x 40ft) indoor pool built in a hanger that’s only one third below ground. And it is home to a the International Space Station 1:1 training mock-up minus the solar panels. Like everything else in NASA, there are alot of stories passed around about the pool lab. “Took a month to fill. Enough cement to fill 500 trucks for miles.”  I think the key to NASA culture is separating the ‘tales’ from the facts, but it’s such an attractive part about NASA.

We didn’t have the luck of seeing any astronauts train in the facility, but they were removing the Hubble Telescope mock-up that the astronauts had been training on. The facility was home to several other mock-ups of the shuttle that were equally amazing. I got to sit in a shuttle flight chair that I assume that it becomes more comfortable when hitting 3 g’s on launch.

I welcome any questions from new teams. I learned a lot that I didn’t record in this account, but would be happy to share. Contact me with the form on the top of the page.

Further Reading

Our PPPL advisor’s blog about the trip: Science Edumacation

NASA Microgravity University

TCNJ Engineering

NASA Microgravity University

NASA Blog

Nebraska Lincoln Blog