mjgradziel.com    michael j. gradziel
california snow, new zealand seashore, west china spice market, mojave desert with my truck, sierra nevada grass, great wall of china with Joy, mountain pine
A decade long record of life as I know it.

     Mike, most recently:
I'm all done after four years and somewhere in the neighborhood of four million dollars, though most of that went to a big subcontract for the brake mechanism that my bridle deployment device will use to control the lowering speed of NASA's big new Mars Rover when it lands on the red planet in 2010. There is paperwork to finish, and some testing to complete as well as a pesky problem with braided fibers getting too stiff when cold. Mars is really cold. Other than that, I am starting to take back my life! I went out and got a much-needed haircut, bought some new clothes, called friends, cleaned my house, and put together the most organized hardware build record ever created at JPL. Test results show the well-oiled machine performing right on my prediction: right distance, right speed, right rotation, and the time was quite close to what I thought would be the nominal. Other things I've done lately: biking, running a 10k race with twelve thousand people at night, and camping out at the San Diego Wild Animal Park where the giraffes run free under palm trees. It's a little odd; palm trees do not remind me of the serengeti, but the zoo has its reasons.

Bio - Work - Projects - archived writings - favorite photos - textile collection

Photos and Commentary . . . follow the links:


Mexico to Canada on the PCT, Dad's account from the trail in 1978.
New York to New Orleans by bicycle and riverboat, 1944. Grandma's story.


Questions or comments? email mike-at-mjgradziel.com

Most photos are mine or Joy's (credits to others are in image captions); please credit us where appropriate.