future trends


How to get started with drones 2

Aerial drones (or unmanned aerial vehicles – UAVs) are destined to transform our world.  Through industry, academia, recreation, sports, movies, transportation… they are a disruptive innovation that will be used in all of these areas. If you loved computers or computer programming ten years ago, and were looking for a long term career path, what […]

Girls flying a drone

Gravitational wave discovery will transform rocket science

Eventually! Sure, it will take many more years.  Probably several more lifetimes of people like those in the announcement this week that gravitational waves were discovered after two black holes collided. We know that gravity exists.  But we don’t understand it well enough yet to create a gravity engine or anti-gravity machine.  Eventually perhaps a […]


Aerospace jobs in San Diego appear to have serious lift

This May 1st, 2015 article from The San Diego Union-Tribune describes several positive forces and trends for aerospace jobs in the San Diego, California metro area: Aerospace makes comeback in San Diego Southern California has one of the most exciting and remarkable histories when it comes to aerospace and aviation.  Maybe that is the place […]

san diego aerospace museum

Elon Musk the world needs more gigafactories

Did Elon Musk design an all-electric airplane?

Watch this interview with Elon Musk.  The discussion centers around the first Gigafactory that Tesla is building for its cars.  He makes a compelling claim that the world needs hundreds of Gigafactories.  And then the discussion turns to aerospace and aviation. Musk quotes some numbers that should capture your attention.  It is clear that he […]


Space Show episode with Brett Hoffstadt available here 2

Hey rocket science and aerospace career trailblazers!  The recording of my appearance on The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston is now available at this link.  The show aired on Friday, February 20th, 2015.  His page has a nice summary of the show.  If you want to jump right into the MP3 playback click here.  […]


What the Google investment in SpaceX means for rocket scientists

Yes, it is exciting news to hear that SpaceX announced it received $1B in funding from Google and Fidelity.  Here is Wired’s article on the news. As I emphasized in Tip #2 in my book (Tip #2: Expand your concept of rocket science), if you want a career in aerospace (AKA rocket science) you need […]


Is warp drive possible – from Omaha? 2

I got this story from a good friend and colleague of mine in the aerospace world named Bill (who is deaf BTW, and that’s worth another post later).

You might want to remember the name David Pares.  You definitely want to watch this video and read this article from Omaha.com:

http://www.omaha.com/living/working-toward-a-warp-drive-in-his-garage-lab-omahan/article_b6489acf-5622-5419-ac18-0c44474da9c9.html?mode=jqm

David Pares is a professor at the University of Omaha.  He claims to have evidence already of bending space and shortening laser beams with his device in his garage.  The physics is inspired by accounts of pilots who have somehow instantaneously traveled hundreds of miles due to strong storms in the atmosphere (and it’s inspired by Star Trek, of course).

This is yet another reason why we still need more rocket scientists!  Is it really fair to believe that we’ve discovered and harnessed all of the energy and propulsion sources that are possible in this awesome, immense universe?  No, of course not.

It’s impossible to predict when or where (or if) we’ll ever discover warp drive and make it possible.  But it just might come from Omaha.  Or maybe someone reading this blog will have something to do with it…

Also worth asking: can you be deaf and work in aerospace?  Yes indeed!  It ain’t easy.  But then neither is rocket science.

Take care and take charge.

Here is David Pares’ company website for Space Warp Dynamics LLC (perfect name, right?!) http://swdllc.paresspacewarpresearch.org/