Chair Force Engineer

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

E Pluribus UNM

I started my class at the University of New Mexico today. The first challenge was finding a place to park. I looked for a shop that was under-staffed and not visited by a lot of shoppers. The local "Family Dollar" fit the bill. However, I've heard that the local businesses like to tow people away in these situations, so I'll probably shell out the entire $1.25 for a parking spot next time. As long as I'm not parking in UNM's poorly-designed parking garage, I'll be alright.

Class was conducted in a conference room (which the instructor admitted wasn't conducive to learning.) It felt a bit weird to be sitting in a 200-level nuclear engineering class. Still, I'm not the oldest student there.

I kept thinking about the imminent "New Horizons" mission to Pluto, which will use Plutonium, and will hopefully give us the best info yet on the ninth planet. The combaination of astronautics and nuclear power is what will drive mankind's quest to colonize space. While my continued education in nuclear engineering may have to wait until the Air Force (one way or another) lets me become a full-time student, my desire to see mankind as a spacefaring species makes the educational travails worth the while.