ADDITIONAL WRITINGS and SUBMISSIONS

In addition to the papers noted there were a few abstracts turned down — e.g., one on tracking entitled “Point All Over the Sky and Track Everything” (submitted when fast-switching electronically steered array antennas were new), plus another on collision avoidance. Funding support for collision avoidance has thus far been minimal. A tutorial in 2000 attracted almost no attendance at all. A statement formally submitted to the Legal Issues Panel at ION-GPS-2000 is recorded, with no answer, on page 1420 of that Proceedings. Only a verbal response was received noting that, even in 2000, it wasn’t a new problem. My reaction to that observation: that’s all the more reason why it should have been solved. Almost ten years after publication of paper #65, #81 was printed in the Air Traffic Control Journal. As of 2009, limitations of all present and planned configurations were acknowledged by many.

“Protective Systems in Space” (Co-authored some months before President Reagan announced plans for SDI): What we prescribed was, as the title indicates, a way to detect, track, and intercept incoming threats (but without busting the budget — unlike what happened in those investigations). Publication was disallowed (“ITARS”). So we couldn’t scoop President Reagan — and, though it’s hardly news now, it doesn’t appear here either.

The first and fourth of the submissions listed next were intended to be short papers. The second and third were submitted as columns. MATLAB code for the first appears on page 208 of my 2007 book, and a brief description of a few after that is followed by appearance here of those submissions themselves.

“Closed Form Keplerian State Transition Matrix” (submitted to AIAA during the early 1960s) wasn’t accepted as a stand-alone technical note. The MATLAB code just identified was used for papers #4 and #52. Cartesian geocentric position and velocity at any instant can be chosen as state variables for orbit determination. When that choice is made, it is convenient to have this formulation available to provide all transition matrix elements.

“Zero Defect Marketing” (a review of the book with that title): Book reviews were not accepted by the intended publication during the mid-to-late 1980s.

“We’re Proving It Again” (late 1980s, just after collapse of the Iron Curtain): Opportunities to express views on international topics are evidently reserved for those with recognition in the political area.

“Carrier Phase Processing With Robustness” (Co-au): Reviewers rejected the unorthodox style of this submission. That unorthodox expression was intentional, in an effort to jolt the industry away from the ubiquitous requirement to resolve carrier phase ambiguity. Although highly desirable when correct, that resolution is not foolproof — and considerable benefit can be reliably derived from sequential changes in ambiguous phase (emphatically not  the same as the far less accurate deltaranges). This was written before SA removal; today across-receiver differencing is not needed for robust dynamics. As noted in the pertinent video, the approach has been validated with flight data. What it offers is too valuable to be left on the shelf.

I then chose, from my many writings/presentations on defense costs, one to be included here. Some repetition appears among those defense budget critiques. One became an IEEE “Today’s Engineer” column. The last was turned down by several papers and magazines.

A highly detailed but incomplete unpublished analysis of torques at hip and knee joints is included last. Most of the (seemingly endless) complications were resolved but, after countless hours of effort give to this, a few remain.

For a “grand finale” I wrote another book published in 2005. Nuts & Bolts of Christianity is an engineer’s take on a subject that is often addressed in other ways. Since I’m not qualified to speak in ways lofty nor authoritative, I offered a practical outlook. Several hundred (600 to 800) copies were donated to the Salvation Army, in an effort to provide a windfall there but they bulk-sold them (for a mini-windfall). Now there are various Internet offerings. A short description appears at JLFPHD.com.