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MasterSpam

MasterSpam

Active member
Mar 10, 2025
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So, to start this off...
I made precsion optics for 52+ years. Started as the 3rd full time employee of a mom and pop shop that grew to 80+ folks and worked my way up to principal engineer for manufacturing, process develpoment and testing of some very fun stuff. Mirrors on the Voyagers, the mirrors for COSTAR that fixed the Hubble, lots of the references that semiconductor manuctuers use to make PC chips and a ton of weapons fire control optics.
Find Somethiing You Love To Do And You'll Never Work A Day In Your Life...
 
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MasterSpam said:
So, to start this off...
I made precsion optics for 52+ years. Started as the 3rd full time employee of a mom and pop shop that grew to 80+ folks and worked my way up to principal engineer for manufacturing, process develpoment and testing of some very fun stuff. Mirrors on the Voyagers, the mirrors for COSTAR that fixed the Hubble, lots of the references that semiconductor manuctuers use to make PC chips and a ton of weapons fire control optics.
Find Somethiing You Love To Do And You'll Never Work A Day In Your Life...
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I worked for a university lab that did research on micro and nanotechnology as a graphic designer/communications-type person until I became disabled a few years ago. I will not stare at you blankly if you mention chemical vapor deposition. You might stare at me blankly for this moonspeak: 4/4 16pp 60#house silk text 100# cover w/PDF proof or you might not, I don’t know. I haven’t requested a print quote in like 6 years.
 
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MasterSpam said:
So, to start this off...
I made precsion optics for 52+ years. Started as the 3rd full time employee of a mom and pop shop that grew to 80+ folks and worked my way up to principal engineer for manufacturing, process develpoment and testing of some very fun stuff. Mirrors on the Voyagers, the mirrors for COSTAR that fixed the Hubble, lots of the references that semiconductor manuctuers use to make PC chips and a ton of weapons fire control optics.
Find Somethiing You Love To Do And You'll Never Work A Day In Your Life...
Click to expand...
I've been making use of your optics.

~30 years of planetary remote sensing using RADAR, LiDAR, and UV, Visible, and IR imaging from the Voyagers, Hubble, Viking, Galileo, Cassini, and many other spacecraft up to those continuing to operate today. Now I mostly do data preservation and accessibility, mission planning, remote sensing for wildfire detection, lunar remote sensing, and other, similar work for a variety of customers.
 
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Scoutsie said:
I worked for a university lab that did research on micro and nanotechnology as a graphic designer/communications-type person until I became disabled a few years ago. I will not stare at you blankly if you mention chemical vapor deposition. You might stare at me blankly for this moonspeak: 4/4 16pp 60#house silk text 100# cover w/PDF proof or you might not, I don’t know. I haven’t requested a print quote in like 6 years.
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That is how ULE (Ultra Low Expansion) 'glass' is made. Super stable stuff. Zerodur may be made in a similar fashion and what was used for the Stardust probe mirror I made. It doesn't have the 'layered' alignment problem ULE has and nearly as stable. I made etalon spacers with ULE.
 
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SpaceEVDriver said:
I've been making use of your optics.

~30 years of planetary remote sensing using RADAR, LiDAR, and UV, Visible, and IR imaging from the Voyagers, Hubble, Viking, Galileo, Cassini, and many other spacecraft up to those continuing to operate today. Now I mostly do data preservation and accessibility, mission planning, remote sensing for wildfire detection, lunar remote sensing, and other, similar work for a variety of customers.
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Small world considering the exposure people have to optics in general. I made the pupil splitter for Chandra and pickoff mirrors for WFPC II and Stardust. Made some for the probe that crashed into Mars because they used english instead of metric to program the chute opening. 1,000 feet is not the same as 1,000 meters... :oops: .
 
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MasterSpam said:
Small world considering the exposure people have to optics in general. I made the pupil splitter for Chandra and pickoff mirrors for WFPC II and Stardust. Made some for the probe that crashed into Mars because they used english instead of metric to program the chute opening. 1,000 feet is not the same as 1,000 meters... :oops: .
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The Mars Climate Orbiter probably skipped out of the Martian atmosphere due to the unit conversion error (one of the contractors used imperial units while everyone else uses metric). The Mars Polar Lander probably crashed because there was too much bounce in the landing legs when they opened and that triggered the computer to believe the lander had...well, landed even though it was 40 meters above the surface. The onboard LiDAR system was designed for weather science, not landing indicators, so it was pointed up, not down. We now have multiple, independent, redundant indicators for that kind of hazardous event.

And still people wonder why redundant systems and triple-check-peer-review is now standard in most of our work.
 
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Scoutsie said:
I worked for a university lab that did research on micro and nanotechnology as a graphic designer/communications-type person until I became disabled a few years ago. I will not stare at you blankly if you mention chemical vapor deposition. You might stare at me blankly for this moonspeak: 4/4 16pp 60#house silk text 100# cover w/PDF proof or you might not, I don’t know. I haven’t requested a print quote in like 6 years.
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Good thing you didn’t mention the serial killer thing. People might look at you differently 🤣
 
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I am a physical scientist for the EPA (for now, fingers crossed for us all) working in the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards. I've worked in stationary source emissions testing for almost 25 years now. I've run regulatory support labs and do research to improve methods and add new alternative methods when new technologies show up. We've actually been working on one with LiDAR for landfills based on the oil and gas work. It's very interesting!
 
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Dsegrest said:
In real life I am a REALTOR I am developing an apiary and an orchard. That is my passion
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I so want to do an apiary. Been thinking of converting rear 1/3 of property to wild flowers and clover and starting a few boxes but I just am not fully ready to commit. I’m a hair jealous so kudos to you
 
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Maybe it is self selection so far but I’m surprised at such a tech heavy crowd. I retired in 2012 from 35 years as a software engineer. First job out of grad school I wrote the code generator for a Jovial compiler used to write flight software for the MX missles. Then almost 10 at a small company working on Ada compilers. Then 10 years at Apple mostly working on the OS for the PowerPC machines. Finally 11 years at Adobe. If you are into digital photography and know what .xmp files are, I wrote the software the apps use to read and write them. Now as a hobby I make furniture for our house starting from slabs. I got inspired by Matt Cremona’s videos. And travel in our small trailer.
 
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MasterSpam said:
So, to start this off...
I made precsion optics for 52+ years. Started as the 3rd full time employee of a mom and pop shop that grew to 80+ folks and worked my way up to principal engineer for manufacturing, process develpoment and testing of some very fun stuff. Mirrors on the Voyagers, the mirrors for COSTAR that fixed the Hubble, lots of the references that semiconductor manuctuers use to make PC chips and a ton of weapons fire control optics.
Find Somethiing You Love To Do And You'll Never Work A Day In Your Life...
Click to expand...
Earth Science Teacher very near retirement!
 
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AlanL said:
@MasterSpam @SpaceEVDriver You guys might appreciate this Practical Engineering video. Someone working at a nuclear waste repository took hand written notes at a meeting and wrote "an organic" instead of "inorganic". Bad stuff happened.

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I love that guy’s videos! Always super interesting to watch. There’s also USCSB (US Chemical Safety Board) which is great to explain how and why things went wrong and how to prevent it
 
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