Would you like to dance around the world with me?

Finally DONE!

...well almost, but 99.9% of the stress is over - there are just a few more things to wrap up. About two weeks ago, I turned in my thesis on Risk Management of Student-run Small Satellites, which included a study of the types of failures in small satellites and a new way for them to do risk management that makes it a lot easier and more intuitive.

Then, last Thursday and Friday we had our Preliminary Design Review for Mars Gravity, which involved 19 formal reviewers (Ames, Goddard, Orbital Research, etc.) here to scrutinize every part of our design. And did they. But they were also very supportive and generally had a very positive opinion of the team and the project. They also thought we gave good presentations, which is always nice feedback to hear. We'll get the formal report in a few weeks on whether we passed the review or not. I can't really explain how much hard work and the number of hours that went into this review, but it all came together really well, and even though there are some areas which we need to work on, all the reviewers (including the ones from which we need $$!) were impressed. I hate to blow my own horn, but one of the very picky and anal reviewers told me after "I was thinking through your presentation that whatever company gets you is really lucky." I was quite happy and confident then for the rest of the time. :-)

I spent most of the weekend with my grandparents, who came in from New York. It was nice to see them - we went to church, brunch, Pirates 3 (which was actually pretty good, btw), and ice cream. It's hard to think of activities sometimes with them because my grandmother can't walk a lot, but it's also nice to hang out with family.

It's kinda surreal that I'm done. I feel like I am forgetting to do something or that I should be working instead of finally making my picture albums (for which I have way too many pictures) and doing all those errands I've been putting off for months. And then I realize it really has been months. I can't believe we leave for Europe in 10 days - there's a lot to be done before then!

This post is all over the place - sorry! Time to go cut out more pictures. I should have just bought a normal scrapbook so I don't have to cut out pictures and glue them on these darn pages. Lesson learned. :-)

posted by Biff @ 5:13 PM