bulan 2.0

Being here, at the cradle of astronauts, I’ve had the privilege to see the first man who walked on the moon from 20 yards out, and meet a couple of other ‘real’ astronauts along the way, including Mark Polansky and a couple of his friends.

And quite recently, the geek club had the opportunity to meet up and have a rocket-science discussion with a prominent rocket scientist and the CEO cum the president of an aerospace company. They were here to talk about the company and how they are progressing with the lunar x-prize competition. You can look it up here.

And yup, there’s a Malaysian team competing too. And what is more exciting is, is the fact that the team is based in Semanggol, which is just about a 30 minute drive away from boring PB. A launch pad in PB then?.. ..lol. I’m guessing that they’re looking at going as a payload on someone else’s rocket.

Anyway, before you people start hating and throwing bad words at the company for wasting money on this random competition, keep on reading. Firstly, by now, you should already notice that the competition is for privately-funded companies only, so, there shouldn’t be much problem with wasting the rakyat’s money and all.

But then, you might not be naïve enough to not think that the government might be funding it anyways. So, to the next point, as I was informed, the $20 million is really not the main catch as most of the teams are looking at working on a $100 million cost. It is more of a chance to make a statement and to build reputation and credibility; it’s more of a long-term investment. Though the solar panels on the moon don’t sound that realistic and all, there is more beyond the prize money I guess. But again, if you have the money, and you got the management part right, then, you’re probably on the right track. As we were told, it is more of a project management thing than it is rocket science.
And google’s catch? I heard that they are going to put a webcam on the moon. I don’t know.

Anyhow, I had an interview with the company the next day, which I did pretty badly in. They won’t be hiring me anyway because they have investments in some defense related stuff. And since they won’t allow internationals to join the US based teams because of some safety and top secret technology regulations and all, to the rest of the teams out there who are interested in having an additional leech on the team, do leave me a message. I have a couple of possible proposals we can work on; probably adopting Robert Full’s work on the rover maybe?



Keyser Soze dah jatuh nombor 2
Back to the job hunting part, given the so-so economic condition right now, the job hunting game has just got a little tougher. A couple of my friends just got informed that they’ve lost the positions they were guaranteed to fit in after graduation. These people have been taking every summer job possible for at least 2 years in every imaginable big corporation around, so you can just imagine how hard it is going to be for people like me who has no prior industrial experience and with not a very sturdy academic standing. I get invited to interviews and all, and I even went on to the more advanced 3rd and 4th round interviews, but in the end, my visa just won’t allow me to go further. But the most frustrating part is that they only tell you that they won’t be hiring after the 3rd or the 4th stages, but, what the hell, it’s never a bad thing to give it a shot right? But there goes my dream car….. ahah

Anyways, it’s a good thing that I’m here, and am in this department. Because our FYP, as most of you would call it, are the coolest kinds of FYPs available in the whole wide world. Because we’re a different breed of engineers, we don’t do much stuff like inventing underwater walking robots or frequency converters or such. So, we need to go out and take projects from cool companies who offer benefits such as sponsored private jet rides for site visits, travelling allowances etc, and act as consultants. Initially, my group was assigned to the coolest project available this semester, involving the biggest semiconductor company in the world and a prestigious medical school nearby in making improvements on a new system. However, we were assigned to take on another project at the very last minute. So, there goes the golden ink on my resume.

Anyhow, the new project isn’t really that bad. I haven’t heard of the company before either, but it turns out that it is the biggest player in the wireless device supply chain business. And I hope that everything’s going to go on smoothly. And better, at least the other 2 members in the team have got some pretty decent industrial experience on their backs. So, if I get lost along the way, leeching is still an option. ahah.

So, sebelum subuh esok, I’m off to Indy, 630 in the freaking morning.