Mach 30 #EngineerSpeak Hangout Dec 04, 2014
Discussion Topic: CodeCAD Demo + Roadmap Work Discussion
Attending: J, Ethan (for a while), Greg, Jeremy, Juli (for a while)
Start: 22:00
End: 23:10
Minutes:
- Jeremy - <demo’ed CodeCAD>
- J - asked about units
- Jeremy/J - that is a much longer discussion
- J - asked about longer term plans for UI work
- Jeremy - already running into snags with FreeCAD developers, long term plan is a custom UI
- J - pointed out PhD model of aerospike nozzle is not very friendly for this work
- Jeremy/J - discussed nozzle options for an example
- J - the bell nozzle would actually set up work for the cold gas thruster model
- J - want talk about roadmap stuff
- J - During reflection, i realized that we’re running big in scope. Meaning: we have to seriously restrict ourselves to a SMALL number of these. Therefore, we need to be cognizant of the intent to significantly limit these project during our sorting and prioritization steps.
- Greg - my interpretation of the process is that we’re working on a subset of all the things needed for a “generation” of a rocket design, and then the projects we choose to work on will be a smaller subset still.
- J - agree. the way we select these subsets must be done smartly.
- J - also, related thought about ruthlessness. The companion value is to “scratch our own itch” when selecting projects to work on.
- Greg - which of our itches are we trying to scratch (the dimensions on the spider graph)
- income potential?
- build a physical infrastructure for Mach 30?
- building engineering gravitas in the various communities we interact with (space, makers, oshw)?
- and more?
- Greg - are we trying to optimize for a specific one or two or the area under the curve?
- J - and is this a question of per project vs over the lifetime of the roadmap
- Greg - thinking the roadmap work should be summarized for consideration by the board and then get guidance from the board on how to proceed
- J - Final process piece: I want to overlay the bounds of High-power ameture rocketry projects as a “squelch factor” to stay well within the export control boundaries. This should happen before taking the work back to the Board.
- J - Propose the next 2 steps
- Roadmap task #1. Sweep through the cards to clarify and make concise for ease of manipulation. Also filter through “high-power” amature rocketry project filter.
- Board Task #1. Answer the question about how to choose which itch(es) to scratch.