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Photo Synthesis is a rotating showcase of the best science photography on the web.


tedkinsman.jpgTed Kinsman is a scientific photographer that specializes in creating images for books, magazines, and television. His particular areas of interest are in x-ray radiography, high-speed photography, Scanning electron microscopy, and time-lapse cinematography. His work has appeared in numerous books and magazines ranging from Discover Magazine to Forbes. Recently his work has appeared on Gray's Anatomy and CSI New York. In addition to running www.sciencephotography.com Kinsman also teaches advanced placement physics at Brighton High School in Rochester, NY, he also teaches advanced macro-photography at Rochester Institute of Technology.


BNSullivan150x200.jpg B.N. (Bobbie) Sullivan has a strong affinity for the sea and everything in it. She first learned to dive in 1970 and has since logged thousands of dives. A wish to document the marine life she encountered prompted her to learn underwater photography more than 20 years ago. More recently, she began to write about the marine life she has photographed. A research psychologist by profession, she approaches her subject matter with the mindset of a scientist, but targets her writing to a general readership in whom she hopes to foster an appreciation for the ocean and its inhabitants.

Bobbie lives in Hawaii with her husband. Together they produce TheRightBlue.com, where you can see more of Bobbie's photos and writing.


bjeffersonbolenderOpt.jpg B Jefferson Bolender is Training Coordinator of the State of Arizona's program for disability awareness and assistive technology. Through her travels she always has a camera at hand to photograph everything from people to technology and nature. As a teacher of elementary education, special education and art, her interests include a wide array of subject matter with an emphasis on documentation with an artist's eye.

See more of her work in her photo stream on Flickr and the website atarizona.com.


jurvetson.jpg Steve Jurvetson enjoys rocketry and photography and especially the pursuit of both in the Black Rock Desert. Some action photos and video links can be found here.

Steve is a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ.com), a leading venture capital firm with affiliate offices around the world.

He was the founding VC investor in Hotmail, Interwoven, and Kana. Previously, he was an R&D Engineer at HP, and his prior technical experience also includes programming, materials science research, and computer design. He has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, an MSEE and and MBA, all from Stanford University.


alex.jpg Alex Wild is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he works on the molecular phylogenetics of various groups of insects. He is also a part-time photographer whose images appear in such venues as Ranger Rick, Smithsonian, BBC Wildlife, and even ScienceBlogs.

Alex's galleries are viewable at www.alexanderwild.com, and he normally blogs at Myrmecos Blog.


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« Memorial Day Memorabilia | Main | Maker Faire Rockets »

Persistence

Category: CATOPhotographyrockets
Posted on: May 26, 2009 11:49 PM, by Steve Jurvetson

Gene Nowaczyk is aiming for the big prize - a successful launch to 100,000 ft. After 50 hours/week over two years, he drove his custom airframe from Missouri in a huge truck.

Gene Machine - 1 of 4 Nosecone Prep

Here is prepping the upper section, packed with electronics. He put an incredible amount of work and craftsmanship into this machined metal rocket. Video camera, x-ray measurements (for atmospheric air quality), avionics for GPS, barometric pressure, accelerometer and other sensors, telemetry...

The complexity of this 17 ft. tall rocket even captured the attention of WIRED magazine:

Gene's Diagram.jpg

Gene has had his share of failure:

Gene Machine - 2 of 4 Gene Machine - 3 of 4
Gene Machine - 4 of 4

His homebrew Q motor is just huge, about 4x the total thrust of a cruise missile booster, or 64,000 Estes rocket engines, but an aged binder led to air pockets that caused a motor overpressure and rupture overhead.

He plans to build more of the same rocket design. I have witnessed two of his launches. His Q motor flame is 18.5 long. The sound was incredible, deep, and loud...

Blastoff!

Our fingers were crossed. Off she roared to Mach 3.5

Success! This photo quickens my pulse.

Space, the Final Frontier

Gene rocket recorded video during its record-setting launch at BALLS in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. This is a frame grab from the video. The readings are in meters, so this sensor indicated an altitude of ~ 100K ft. The atmosphere ends at 55K ft at this latitude.

This launch was a highlight of the weekend, as celebrated on the cover of the New York Times.

The nosecone is now cooling from a peak of 425° during the ascent. The thermal expansion and contraction of the electronic leads led to a loss of power soon after apogee. But the rocket was recovered in almost perfect shape, with just the paint burned off the nose cone.

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Comments

100km is the Karman Line, the (somewhat arbitrary) boundary of the edge of space!
Impressive...

Posted by: Jason A. | May 27, 2009 4:16 PM

Seems apt as you can see the thin blue line.... quite the perspective.

Now imagine seeing this wireless video feed and wondering how long the hike will be to get the rocket back on reentry... =)

Posted by: jurvetson | May 28, 2009 12:44 AM

What are the other levels of measurement? Since you give the value of mach 3.5, that indications is in meters per second? Mein Gott that is quick.
The legend says it transmits telemetry to earth, do you know what frequency - band they use? The article states a over-sized satellite dish. I take it that they setting up 2/5m parabolic antennas to receive the signal. 18 Ghz? (2.4Ghz Wifi would be attenuated coming through the atmosphere) I'm assuming they must be using a licensed band that doesn't interfere with local air traffic or satellite transmissions. That's got to be difficult to track and keep the signal, fascinating stuff.

Posted by: Onkel Bob | May 28, 2009 1:29 AM

Not sure on the rocket's radio band, but I can ask if you want the details.

To clarify, the WIRED article confused the purpose of the big dish. That was connecting to a geosync military satellite for a broadband data link. So we had Skype on the playa, and inks to Google Earth so we can see the rocket GPS trajectory overlaid on the satellite imagery of the region in real time. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/1516275369/

The rocket tracking is with a smaller dish that can manually pan up:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/1517098388

Posted by: jurvetson | May 30, 2009 12:03 PM

To clarify, the WIRED article confused the purpose of the big dish. That was connecting to a geosync military satellite for a broadband data link. So we had Skype on the playa, and inks to Google Earth so we can see the rocket GPS trajectory

thanks...blog

Posted by: metin2 hile | May 12, 2010 3:30 AM

So we had Skype on the playa, and inks to Google Earth so we can see the rocket GPS trajectory overlaid on the satellite imagery of the region in real time

Posted by: metin2 hile | August 8, 2010 1:22 PM

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