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Heading home
Nov. 17th, 2001 06:55 pmAirborne, westbound somewhere over Utah... work was OK at MSFC. There was near-consensus on our likely recommendations about future X-vehicles. Less complexity or change per vehicle -- test one new technology at a time, not try to extend the state of the art in 5 direction at once on one vehicle. Analogous to JPL going from huge, expensive do-all planetary missions to cheaper spacecraft targeted at one primary goal. The X-vehicles in the past decade that have been successful have followed this approach. But I had to work hard to convince my co-panelists that yes, future software technologies need to be tested in their own right, not just as fixes to follow hardware changes.
A courtesy call to the Reusable Launch Vehicle Gen-2 health management folks was also useful, providing a chance to idly speculate on NASA politics, update them on news from Ames, and plan for the upcoming quarterly reviews (without the subjects of those reviews being within earshot :-). We're outnumbered against Northrop and Honeywell as it is, and so the program office is going to ask Ames for more of my time, which might squeeze the Mars drilling automation project... sigh.
Otherwise, things at home are better. I'm not sure why, exactly, but it feels that way. And Pat and I are friends again, if not lovers or partners. And we are talking now about things each of us has done in the past, and how the other felt (but was generally too cautious or scared to voice at the time). And the couples counselor, when pressed last Tuesday, said that he felt that poly and monogamy were both valid relationship structures, and that in any case his beliefs shouldn?t affect his ability as a facilitator for us. That's an improvement, and consciousness-raising on his part. Pat and I talked about why she is usually uncomfortable going to social events with me... for nearly 20 years. I tend to want to circulate and flit, she likes being a couple and spending time wandering around together (and has felt rejected or abandoned in the past when I've disappeared). Something for us to both work on... my sensitivity and her communications. I later invited her to a couple of local social events -- which wasn?t rejected out-of-hand. :-)
On the road, I finished a way-overdue library book by Harry Turtledove, read the last of Gregory Keyes's "Age of Unreason" trilogy, and finally read something by Spider Robinson ("Callahan?s Lady").
Now, if things are just OK at home after this plane lands... next week is Thanksgiving, then the following week it is back on the road (to Florida (KSC) and Washington, DC (Headquarters).
A courtesy call to the Reusable Launch Vehicle Gen-2 health management folks was also useful, providing a chance to idly speculate on NASA politics, update them on news from Ames, and plan for the upcoming quarterly reviews (without the subjects of those reviews being within earshot :-). We're outnumbered against Northrop and Honeywell as it is, and so the program office is going to ask Ames for more of my time, which might squeeze the Mars drilling automation project... sigh.
Otherwise, things at home are better. I'm not sure why, exactly, but it feels that way. And Pat and I are friends again, if not lovers or partners. And we are talking now about things each of us has done in the past, and how the other felt (but was generally too cautious or scared to voice at the time). And the couples counselor, when pressed last Tuesday, said that he felt that poly and monogamy were both valid relationship structures, and that in any case his beliefs shouldn?t affect his ability as a facilitator for us. That's an improvement, and consciousness-raising on his part. Pat and I talked about why she is usually uncomfortable going to social events with me... for nearly 20 years. I tend to want to circulate and flit, she likes being a couple and spending time wandering around together (and has felt rejected or abandoned in the past when I've disappeared). Something for us to both work on... my sensitivity and her communications. I later invited her to a couple of local social events -- which wasn?t rejected out-of-hand. :-)
On the road, I finished a way-overdue library book by Harry Turtledove, read the last of Gregory Keyes's "Age of Unreason" trilogy, and finally read something by Spider Robinson ("Callahan?s Lady").
Now, if things are just OK at home after this plane lands... next week is Thanksgiving, then the following week it is back on the road (to Florida (KSC) and Washington, DC (Headquarters).
