Biography and Writings


Dani Eder

Tirion Designs,

1309 Stroud Ave, Gadsden, AL 35903

Author's email: danielravennest@gmail.com


Biography

I'm an advanced space systems engineer (i.e., a rocket scientist). That means mostly working on next generation projects rather than today's hardware. I attended Columbia University, studying astrophysics and engineering, and where I first started working on space concepts. I then worked for the Boeing Company for 24 years, from 1981-2005, all of it in their Space Systems division. The last major project I worked on was the Space Station, where I variously was a lead systems engineer, wrote operating procedures, and tested software. Since leaving Boeing, I have continued with my own design and engineering business, Tirion Designs. Currently I am working on the Seed Factory Project, whose goal is to design and build a sustainable self-expanding automated factory.

I was supported by the public much of the time, in the form of scholarships and working on government contracts. Now that I work for myself and can choose what I do, I want to give back to society in the form of open-soured work like the Space Transport and Engineering Methods wikibook and other work. I will not complain if someone wants to pay me for new work based on my experience, but I feel the knowledge itself should be available to anyone.

If you want to contact me directly about space or new technology related things, the best way is my email account, listed above. I tend to use the same user name (danielravennest) for most of my public accounts online (including Wikibooks). Other methods like posting to my discussion page here might work, but I am on too many forums and sites to track them all. My personal email is the one I check the most often.

My Writings on Wikibooks

Books in Work:

  • Space Transport and Engineering Methods - This is intended as an introduction to Space Systems Engineering at a first year university level. It is a future-oriented book, covering many ideas and methods beyond just rocket propulsion, such as space mining and manufacturing, and self-sustaining habitats. Future projects are more likely to use these ideas, and so the need to teach the basics about them.


  • Seed Factories - A new book about the concept, history, design, and operation of a self-expanding production system.


Articles in Work:

These are notes and articles in various stages of completion:

  • Seed Ideas - This page is for ideas not developed enough to start a paper, but worth recording. Ones worked on enough to start a paper include:
  • Human Expansion - A proposed program to expand human civilization beyond its current limits.
  • Air Mining - The concept of mining the upper atmosphere from orbit for fuel and air.

The Seed Factory Project

A project to design and prototype a working seed factory.

My Writings Elsewhere

Last modified on 14 May 2013, at 23:30