Patrick Stakem

This book documents the development of missile and spacecraft guidance computers from the earliest efforts to the current Space Station and satellite onboard systems. This book developed from the author's presentation at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in 2009 for the Workshop on Flight Software. The second and third editions were expanded with new material and references. The fourth edition updated the material to the state of the art in 2014, with discussions of the latest approaches and architectures, including Orion. More references wee included, and errors were corrected. This sixth edition in 2019, adds new material, and corrects some information. There is coverage of new missions and systems, particularly the emerging Cubesat architecture, and the ISS's spiffy new Supercomputer.

This book is an overview of the Civil War ironclads that changed Naval Warfare forever. It focuses mainly on those ships designed and deployed on inland rivers. The day of the wooden ship, even updated with steam engines to replace sails, was coming to an end. The heavier cannon was prevailing over sturdy oak timbers. Offense was surging ahead of defense. Even in the Revolutionary war, wooden ships fell to hot-shot, cannon balls heated to red heat in a furnace. Steam, iron, and firepower were the new parameters of naval warfare. Another topic is that of Union and Confederate submarines. The most popular sub was the CSS Hunley, which sank a Union warship, but never returned to base. In fact, the North and the South produced and deployed dozens of different submarine designs. In addition, the adaption of observation balloon's on floating platforms is covered, as well as the Navy's first hospital ship. There is a section at the end of this book showing where to see some of the surviving equipment.

At the moment, it is easy to get money to search for exoplanets. Congress has mandated NASA to do just that. They are to: "acquire an improved understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve, including better descriptions of planetary system architectures, compositions, and environments. Second, they need to learn enough about exoplanets to make informed predictions about habitability, and to make meaningful searches of alien life in distant star systems." Key questions are, is life unique to Earth or is it pervasive throughout the Universe? Are all the forms of life basically the same, or do they differ? Did life on Earth get started from non-biological sources, or were we "contaminated" from space.

This book traces the history and technology of several Irons works in pre-colonial Maryalnd, and pre-civil war southwestern Pennsylavania. I starting with the Colony of Maryland, in Anne Arrundel Maryland, with various immigrants from Wales who recognized iron ore, and knew how to process it. England was excited to get iron ore, but was not enthusiastic about the colonists making products from it locally. Whey, they might actuallu make cannon Iron production was a profitable industry in the colonies, and one family in particular, the Snowdens, thrived in this endeavor.

The ARM processor has come a long way from an obscure British microprocessor of the 1980's to being the dominant basis for the current generation of smart phones, and tablet computers, as well as its use in space. There are already several rad-hard Arduino architectures available, and a rad-hard Pi coming along in a few years. An exciting approach would be to build a rad-hard cluster computer, using the Beowulf software. Actually, this was done and is still operating in Earth orbit. As H-P says aboout its supercomputer on the International Space Station, "...bring the computer to the data."

This book talks about the coming exploitation of the moon for materials and manufacturing. This has a lot of precedents in things like the California and Alaskan gold rushes. There is a need for infrastructure on the lunar surface, and that is in the design phase. Major challenges remain in who owns what, and conflicts can be expected. All in all, an exciting time is coming. What we learn on the moon, we can mostly apply on Mars. And, why stop there?With Commercial firms involved and interested in mining the moon and asteroids, Earth will have to develop more complex "Space Law" to address who owns what and who benefits. In the past, the new frontiers, America, the Yukon, the "West" were mostly wild and ungoverned, at least at first. Hopefully, we will think this thing through, so no corporation or Nation-state will be able to enrich themselves, at the cost of others. This involves interpretation od the Outer Space Treaty, signed by most nations. Of particular interest are sites on the lunar surface with resources that could be mined, areas of total or no sunlight. Looks like we will need a legal cadre to sort out the details. But, there is some precedent in Antarctica. What is the most valuable thing on the moon? Well, if you want something light weight that is worth bringing back to Earth, that wuld be Helium-3, of use in a new generation of fusion reactors that would be less costly, and much less dangerous. Probably the next thing would be water, and we would use that in-situ both for greenhouses, but also cracked down, with solar power, to its constituent hydrogen and oxygen. That's rocket fuel, good for the return trip, or for going out further. That's rocket fuel that doesn't have to be carried up from Earth by...more rocket fuel. Also, the oxygen supply for lunar bases could come from local sources, until we get the Greenhouses going. There's always a need for spare oxygen.

Pronounced RISK-Five, RISC-V is the latest implementation of the MIPS architecture, in an open source configuration. The project kicked off in 2018 at the University of California, Berkeley.It was announced in 1996. Multiple companies now offer 32 and 64-bit RISC-V chips. The RISC-V architecture is making inroads on the popular ARM embedded architecture.

This book covers the topics of the existence of planets around others stars, that could possible harbor life. In addition, it covers the search for extraterrestial life in our own solar system. We only have to find life other than ours once, and the door is open. We think now we are unique in the Universe., but the Universe is very large. We still find strange life forms on Earth, like the extremeofils deep under the sea, feeding off volcanic vents. We're not looking hard enough, and can't see far enough to write off the possibility of alternate life in the Universe. One of the more exciting missions is the search for planets of other stars than our own sun. Although there are nearly impossible to image directly, they can be observed as the pass through our line of sight with the distant star, and cause a small dip in the perceived brightness. Exo-planets are best seen from space.

This book covers the topic of Earth's Planetary Defense. This is not for the purposes of repelling an alien invasion, although the military has probably thought of that. Any civilization that could reach us is undeniably more technological advanced. We are focused, however, on big chunks of rock that could cause massive damage, and end civilization as we know it. It has happened - ask the dinosaurs. Ocean impacts, and Earth is covered by 75% water, recall, could trigger massive Tsunamis.The National Science and Technology Council is on record as saying we are unprepared as a nation for a large asteroid impact event. The last impact of a object some 10 km in size, 66 million years ago, caused an "extinction event." A four meter asteroid enters the Earth's atmosphere about once a year. For seven meters, its 5 years. That size produces a Hiroshima-sized explosion. For 20 meter asteroids, its twice per century. We just had one in 2013. We have had a success rate of four asteroids detected before they hit Earth's surface. It's the ones we don't detect that should trouble us. That, and the fact we don't have a clue on what to do about it, if its detected.

Export of the cotton to England and France was a major money-maker for plantation owners. Cotton Milling started in Maryland in the 18th century, using Southern cotton, and continued into the 20th century. The technology for automating the process was developed in England, and perfected in New England. Industrialization was not well developed in the South, but the region was good for cotton growth.Savage Mill is a facility along the North bank of the little Patuxent River, in the Town of the same name. It was a working mill from 1822 to 1947. There was adequate water power most of the year, and the area was used for water-powered mills since the middle of the 18th Century. Savage Mill operated from 1811 through 1929.The original facility included the mill, 500 acres of land, a warehouse, a flour mill, saw mill, and later, an iron furnace and forge. The Town that built up around the Mill was mostly company housing, and it was named after the man who bankrolled the project, John Savage of Philadelphia. The Savage operation was not just a cotton mill sited near abundant water power. The facility had to produce it's own parts and machinery, so it included an iron furnace, and shops for producing parts and machinery. These products were also sold to other Mill operators. The shops also produced machinery for the U. S. Government's Harper's Ferry Arsenal. Being rather remote, the facility produced whatever it needed from local raw materials. In 1846, The Savage Manufacturing Company sold looms and steam power engines for the Powhatan Cotton Factory in Baltimore.

This book discusses the exploration of Asteroid. This is very difficult, because of the millions of diverse targets to visit. The sizes range from dust particles to the dwarf planet Ceres. The area of the asteroid belt was searched by astronomers in the 18the century, based on the lack of a planet at a predicted orbit by the Titus Bode Law. Before the 1890's, astronomy depended on human observation through the telescope, and this was difficult with small objects, as compared to planets. In 1891, astro-photography began producing better results. This book will provide an overview and description of asteroid missions. It will then suggest the right approach to exploring the asteroid belt is with a large swarm of small spacecraft.

This book covers the topic of Telescopes in Space. Observation of the night skys started way before Civilaization. Early humans looked at all the lights in the sky, saw that some moved, and some where still. What did it all mean?The initial assumption was that the Earth was the center of the Universe, and everything traveled around it. But, by observations, some "heavenly bodies" wander about in the sky, and increasingly complex theories were developed to address this. Later, when the Earth was dethroned as the center of the universe, it was understood that other planets and the Earth were in orbit around the Sun. And, the Sun was just another star, like those that could be seen in the night sky.

This book covers the topic of weather in space, which is defined by our Sun. It interacts with our atmosphere and magnetic field (actually the atmosphere and magnetic field of all the planets and moons), to influence our weather. It can impact our technology.The study of Space Weather depends on space physics. All of out Space Weather originates with the Sun. The first serious study's of the subject were undertaken in the International Geophysical Year, in 1957. Actually stretching 18 months, this period saw the first launches of Earth Satellites, and amazing discovery's. We have to be able to predict Space Weather Storms, if we want humans to live and work in space. Space weather affects our satellites, produces the Northern (and Southern) Lights, and can affect communications, the electric grid, aviation and more.

This book will discuss the exploration of the four largest planets in our solar system, all located beyond the orbit of Mars. The first two, Jupiter and Saturn are termed the Gas Giants, and the next two, Neptune and Uranus, are the Ice Giants.Each has an extensive set of moons, and a ring system. Each is also unique in many ways. They have been explored extensively, and more information is gained every day about their composition and behavior. It's thought that some of the larger moons might harbor life beneath an icy crust. Some of the larger moons could provide a landing site and outpost for humans. There is a lot more to learn about these systems, and how the planets and the solar system in general formed, and behaves.

The book discusses the Engineering process, a road map developed over time to simplify design, implementation, and testing. It is applicable across a broad range of applications, from building a cathedral, to designing ap software.One key part of the process is that it can be enhanced and modified, to incorporated new knowledge. Although the teachers are experts in their particular area, and know how to present grade-appropriate material, they may not know how to find and access the advanced resources they need, or where to get help in a particular topic area.STEM programs are seen as critically important in the education system, world-wide. It is getting to be a complex, interconnected, global ecosystem. Advances in the subject areas of STEM will take place only by those who know how to exploit this ecosystem for knowledge.