Okay, it's been several months.
Must be time for me to post again.
I have a job I like. Wonder of wonders! I build satellites for a living now. It's not ground station software, this is packing the real boxes full of electronics onto a lightweight bus that goes on the top of a rocket that gets shot into space. What I'm working on, working next to, working with every day, *actually goes into space*. Jobs don't get any cooler than that. =D
Plus they pay me well. Well enough to live in the Bay Area without too much heartache about cost-of-living. And with housing prices dropping, we might even be able to get a real house!
I took this job thinking that I'd check every three months to see if I could still stand it, and quit to go back to school if I couldn't. Six months in, I still love it. =D
Which all complicates my Dad's plans for my future, since he was convinced I was going to go back to school and get a PhD like he's always wanted. Those plans are on the shelf for the moment. (If Northrop wants to ship me back down south again, I may well put the school plan into action.)
There are just a couple of projects in the works right now -- one's called Kepler, and the other one I can't immediately put my finger on, but Kepler is searching for extra-solar planets, and the other is searching for solar system objects (asteroids, kuiper belt objects and such.) While there's at best a 50/50 chance that someone with political power will have the vision to expand America's (and humanity's) reach into space, there's still exciting stuff going on.
These two missions will contribute greatly to a practical map of the solar system, and planetary systems beyond our own. It would be a thrill to work on these and know I've actually contributed to the future of the species. Until then, well, anything that's going up there is cool. =)
I have a job I like. Wonder of wonders! I build satellites for a living now. It's not ground station software, this is packing the real boxes full of electronics onto a lightweight bus that goes on the top of a rocket that gets shot into space. What I'm working on, working next to, working with every day, *actually goes into space*. Jobs don't get any cooler than that. =D
Plus they pay me well. Well enough to live in the Bay Area without too much heartache about cost-of-living. And with housing prices dropping, we might even be able to get a real house!
I took this job thinking that I'd check every three months to see if I could still stand it, and quit to go back to school if I couldn't. Six months in, I still love it. =D
Which all complicates my Dad's plans for my future, since he was convinced I was going to go back to school and get a PhD like he's always wanted. Those plans are on the shelf for the moment. (If Northrop wants to ship me back down south again, I may well put the school plan into action.)
There are just a couple of projects in the works right now -- one's called Kepler, and the other one I can't immediately put my finger on, but Kepler is searching for extra-solar planets, and the other is searching for solar system objects (asteroids, kuiper belt objects and such.) While there's at best a 50/50 chance that someone with political power will have the vision to expand America's (and humanity's) reach into space, there's still exciting stuff going on.
These two missions will contribute greatly to a practical map of the solar system, and planetary systems beyond our own. It would be a thrill to work on these and know I've actually contributed to the future of the species. Until then, well, anything that's going up there is cool. =)