Who is this Ian Jordan guy, anyway?

"Vell, he's just dis guy, you know."

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Disclaimer: The point-of-view expressed below describing historical events is not that of my current or former employer nor anyone else. Factual errors are entirely the fault of the author and should be brought to his attention at jordan-at-stsci-dot-ee-dee-you.

Earthlog, 2006, April

No way am i going to rewrite this webpage to make it current! I've been trying to do that for years and it just isn't getting done. Instead, i'll just post updates near the top aperiodically, leaving my ancient history near the bottom.

Hmmmm. Since i wrote that stuff (over 5 years ago!), a lot of things have happened. There's no sense attempting chronological order because much of it overlaps (time is supposed to be nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... or at least, that's the theory--i'm not so sure about practice).

From 2003 to 2005, i was nominally lead science planner for HST, and i continue to support Hubble science planning through software development as well as engineering and data analysis, and occasional operations tasks (not quite out to pasture, but as long as there are better folks to do these things, i'm better off as second string).

Most co-workers probably think i am obsessed with the earth's magnetic field, since "SAA" ( South Atlantic Anomaly) is probably one of the most frequent acronyms to pass my lips. Nevertheless, utilization of the half of the physical HST orbits which are intersected by passages through the magnetic depression is key to efficient use of a ~$10/second observatory (amortized, full-cost accounting). The USNO's transit-circle in New Zealand was less costly (~$10/observation), but was not so publicly acclaimed (except, perhaps, by anti-base protestors). The SAA is a depression in the earth's magnetic field that may be the result of the onset of a magnetic reversal. But not to worry--it won't happen in our lifetimes.

Operations-wise, i was also an HST program coordinator for a few noteworthy programs: 9700, The Hubble Helix of 2002 (for which David Soderblom and i co-discovered that HST would be pointing in the right part of the sky to observe it while 'hiding' from the Leonid meteor shower), and 10456 HST Observations of Tempel-1 for the Deep Impact encounter in 2005. This one was very exciting (literally, a once in a lifetime observation)! Fortunately, with extensive support and help by the marvelously competent and professional colleagues (the HST operations staff) and the proposal's excellent principal investigator, Paul Feldman, all went off as planned.

One of my favorite targets was tapped by Hubble Heritage (HST program 9983, Observations of a beautiful Ring Galaxy in the constellation Volans). I was also a co-I (sorry guys, it doesn't have any moons--dynamically impossible over millions of years) for Alfred B. Schultz on 9171, FGS observations of the first discovered transiting planet around the star HD 209458. My role was minor and only noteworthy in determining an improved period for the later observations. The remarkable aspect of these observations is that Hubble has a 40-Hertz photometer--not widely known.

Shortly after assuming the role of lead-planner, a "Right Ascension fight" between the Ultra Deep Field and the COSMOS 2-degree survey occurred. This was an unfortunate episode where we learned that it is possible to tip over the HST narrow-keeled boat (first suggested by Adam Reiss, at an April 2003 TIPS meeting). RA fights are well known at ground-based observatories, but even space telescopes are not immune to them. The conflict could have been handled more gracefully, but i did what was possible to inform and help the observers explore mitigation options. Follow the links from the STScI homepage to find out what these two great survey programs have uncovered about the deep- and large-scale character of the universe.

In 2003 after the Columbia accident, i became fascinated (some might say obsessed) with understanding what happened from an engineering point-of-view. I performed some analyses of the Starfire photographs and articulated how Columbia's final moments might have transpired based upon what was known. That analysis drew the attention of a New Mexico reporter who placed me in touch with Robert Fugate. I exercised this contact to leverage transfer of the two Columbia images in order that Rick White might perform image enhancement of them. The first photo is famous, however the second more distant one is not. This second one is in many ways more remarkable because it shows a view over the top of the wing as Columbia receded toward the horizon passing above thin clouds. The brightness of the left wing is several times greater than the right, and material on the top of the wing may well have been burning to produce this extra light. I was able to extract a brightness profile along the plume that could yield clues to the chemical reactions in the plume.

In 2004, when Sean O'Keefe chickened out as a result of the flak he was taking for the 2nd shuttle accident and cancelled SM4, i participated in an institute working group to look at options to extend HST's lifetime. My role was minor, with my contribution an analysis of the plane-change-to-ISS option. That analysis demonstrated that the orbit-change would take a factor of 2 longer than generally quoted, but that there were several orbit-change profiles which were practical nonetheless. The working group produced a fine document on the science case for extending the life of HST.

I finally received my masters in applied physics (cum laude, which would never have been obtained without the support of my ever-patient spouse Linda) in Applied Physics from Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering in May of 2005.

Fortune has long been with me to receive continued research support on advanced techniques for observing extrasolar planets. That research has focused on external occulters (star visors, star shades, etc.), and was the subject of term papers in two graduate courses and numerous publications. I co-designed the optically scaled ground test (inspired by Kailash Sahu and Howard Bond) along with Richard G. Lyon, Alfred Schultz, and Helen Hart. The test was first carried out at a practical scale on a real star in 2004 with the support and involvement of the Westminster Astronomical Society, Inc. Paul Henze and George Sauter are particularly commended for their ideas and work that brought this to reality.

I've given numerous talks on this technique, and if you'd like to hear/see one of them and have a high-bandwidth connection and RealPlayer, check out the December 2005 Hubble Talk. This technique has recently received a second-look by the terrestrial planet-finding community, but only time will tell whether this way is actually easier than internal coronography for the study of terrestrial analogues around other stars.

My two boys are now 5 and 7. The elder may not be much with words, but shows a continuing love-affair with computers. He has lots of talent and is very competitive and an excellent long-distance runner. The younger is adept at charm and memory, and he loves numbers and is fascinated by time. Both are good at crafts and academics. Their amazing mother works tirelessly with the boys to continue their education beyond the classroom.

2001, Sometime in April, page creation...

Although born in Indianapolis, i spent most of the first dozen years of my life 6 miles outside of the burgeoning metropolis of Cherryville, Missouri (population 42 at the time, don't you know)...about a hundred miles southwest of St. Lo. Most of the next dozen years was spent in Las Vegas (Nevada, not New Mexico...and yes, people do live there), but along the way a couple handfulls of schools found me attending their classes at one time or another, with most of those in Tucson, Arizona.

I took my time getting a B.Sc. in physics from UNLV (a picture of the original "Tumbleweed Tech" is seen at left). I confess--I love the desert and was in no hurry to leave.

After some time spent wandering around, haunting (err, i mean visiting) California canyons, Florida beaches and friends across the US, Tom Corbin offered me a job as an observing astronomer on the 6-inch transit circle at the U.S. Naval Observatory in (believe it or not) Washington, D.C. It was like a mechanico-electric video game: using a handpaddle with joystick-like functionality to track stars as they wheeled across the sky, analyzing the output, finding out how the instrument behaved, and measuring star positions at the same time...but DC just didn't grow on me.

As luck would have it, someone was needed to work at Black Birch Astrometric Observatory, about an hour's drive south of Blenheim, New Zealand, where i spent 5 years building observing schedules, performing monthly maintenance on the 7-inch automated (no focal plane detector, I) transit circle and a brief stint as a plate tender at the end of the twin astrograph's duty.

How do i square measuring star positions for the Navy with having previously protested at the Nevada Test Site? It isn't cognitive dissonance: the kind of space-based strategic anti-ballistic missile defense that was being tested was simply an unwise political and technological pursuit in the context of the time.

Regardless, when the Navy's program in New Zealand began to wind down, i started taking courses at the University of Canterbury, but could find little interest in noisy classes on hydraulics and basic circuits (no fault of the instructors, but their students could use a lesson in consideration and the classes could be a bit more disciplined).

I met my wife-to-be in Christchurch, but there was just something i had to do back in the states....

Taking a temporary job archiving Halley (correctly pronounced "hall [ as in, 'i walked down the hall'] ee" ... Sir Edmund originally spelled his name "Hawley" before changing it.) data from the Russian Vega spacecraft, and SL/9 IRTF data at the Planetary Data System's Small Bodies Node let me get back on my feet in the states. PDSSBN is located at the Astronomy Dept. of the University of Maryland, College Park. Thanks to Ed and Mike and all of the others who were so helpful with my readjustment to the United States!

When the contract ended, i passed an offer by, waiting for the moment when i'd be invited up to Baltimore.... They saw me coming, and soon enough i was scratching at the door of Computer Sciences Corporation.

What's in Baltimore that CSC is involved in? Why the Space Telescope Science Institute, of course! It's so-ooo cool! Check out the link to the public website.

My colleagues, officemates, bosses, family and friends have been quite tolerant. While spending a lot of time doing science planning for HST, i'm currently in a part-time master's program at Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, taking classes from Applied Physics Lab spacecraft engineers, scientists, and mathematicians.

Now i'm a dad twice over with perhaps the world's youngest Tangerine Dream fan (@ 20 months) and an older preschooler who seems to spend most of his time in front of an imac. Maybe he wants my job (dare i get him his own Sun Blade yet?)?

Sounds like a pretty straight up guy, huh? Well, i won't touch that one, but i have to admit that i have been spending a lot of time dabbling into occulters. . . . No! Not witchcraft or that kind of thing! OCCULTERS--UMBRAS! You know--the oldest trick in the book for finding faint things next to bright things...i.e., planets around other stars.

If you want some refrigerator magnets with the UMBRAS logo , just call or send mail.