Jordin T. Kare (October 24, 1956 – July 19, 2017) was a
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
and
aerospace engineer
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...
known for his research on
laser propulsion
Laser propulsion is a form of beam-powered propulsion where the energy source is a remote (usually ground-based) laser system and separate from the reaction mass. This form of propulsion differs from a conventional chemical rocket where both energy ...
. In particular, he was responsible for Mockingbird,
[Mockingbird](_blank)
/ref> a conceptual design for an extremely small (75 kg dry mass
Vehicle weight is a measurement of wheeled motor vehicles; either an actual measured weight of the vehicle under defined conditions or a gross weight rating for its weight carrying capacity.
Curb or kerb weight
Curb weight (U.S. English) or kerb ...
) reusable launch vehicle, and was involved in the Clementine lunar mapping mission.
Kare was also known as developer of the ''Sailbeam'' interstellar propulsion concept and, in the science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
fan community
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
, as a composer, performer and recording artist of filk music
Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s.
Etymology and defin ...
.
Early life and education
Kare grew up in the Philadelphia area and attended Harriton High School
Harriton High School is a public secondary school serving portions of Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. The school is located on the Philadelphia Main Line.
Harriton is one of two high schools in the Lower Merion School District; the other is ...
in Rosemont, Pennsylvania
Rosemont is a neighborhood in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States, on the Philadelphia Main Line. It is located in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County. It is best known as the home of Rosemont College.
Ros ...
. He received his B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
in 1978 and Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
in astrophysics
Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...
from the University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in 1984.[
]
Kare was the brother of Susan Kare
Susan Kare ( "care"; born February 5, 1954) is an American artist and graphic designer best known for her interface elements and typeface contributions to the first Apple Macintosh from 1983 to 1986. She was employee #10 and Creative Director at ...
, designer of the fonts and icons of the original Apple Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
user interface.
Career
Kare worked for many years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...
. In 1996, he left LLNL and, after working briefly for a small space-related startup company, in 1997 became an independent consultant specializing in advanced space system design, and started his own company.[
]
Laser propulsion
He was a leading advocate of laser propulsion
Laser propulsion is a form of beam-powered propulsion where the energy source is a remote (usually ground-based) laser system and separate from the reaction mass. This form of propulsion differs from a conventional chemical rocket where both energy ...
for space launch and in-space propulsion. He organized a 1986 workshop on laser propulsion at LLNL and later led a development program for ground to orbit laser launch supported by SDIO. He received a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is a NASA program for development of far reaching, long term advanced concepts by "creating breakthroughs, radically better or entirely new aerospace concepts". The program operated under the name N ...
grant to study a near-term form of laser launch using arrays of relatively low-powered lasers. He co-founded LaserMotive
PowerLight Technologies is an American engineering firm providing power transmission via lasers. Its primary products are power-over-fiber which transmits energy in the form of laser light through an optic fiber, and "laser power beaming" in whi ...
, Inc., a laser power beaming entrant in the Elevator:2010 Beam Power Challenge, in 2006,[Jordin Kare](_blank)
(bio at Lasermotive site). Retrieved Aug. 3, 2017. and led the overall system design and the laser transmitter design efforts.
Sailbeam
Kare initially presented the concept of a SailBeam Boosted Magsail in a report prepared for NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts called "High-Acceleration Micro-Scale Laser Sails for Interstellar Propulsion". A key idea is that if vast numbers of tiny sails are used to accelerate rather than one enormous one, the same amount of mass can be brought to high speeds with a less complex optical system. Unlike particle-beam propulsion, in which the beam disperses as it travels, a stream of low-mass microsails is not limited by such diffraction. By using dielectric rather than metal sails, the sails can also be accelerated much closer to their power source. The stream of microsails then becomes a source of propulsion to a starship as particle beams mounted on the starship vaporize the incoming sails into plasma.
Filk music and science fiction
Kare was also known as a science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
fan and filksinger. He was a regular attendee and program participant at science fiction convention
Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expres ...
s starting in 1975. He was an editor of ''The Westerfilk Collection: Songs of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', an important filksong collection, and later a partner in Off Centaur Publications, the first commercial publisher specializing in filk songbooks and recordings. Kare won two Pegasus Award
The Pegasus Award is the premier award for filk music
and is annually hosted at the Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF).
Awards
The Pegasus Awards were founded to recognize and honor excellence in filking. As science fiction (sci-fi) became better kn ...
s for his filk songs, Best Classic Filk Song in 2010 for "Fire in the Sky" and Best Writer/Composer in 2017, as well as seven additional nominations from 1987 onwards.
An astrophysicist character with his name appears in '' War of Honor'' and ''Torch of Freedom
''Torch of Freedom'' is a science fiction novel by American writers David Weber and Eric Flint, published on November 3, 2009. It is the second book in the ''Crown of Slaves'' series which runs parallel (timeline-wise) to the main ''Honor Harri ...
'', military science fiction novels in the ''Honor Harrington
The Honorverse is a military science fiction book series, its two Spin-off (media), subseries, two prequel series, and anthologies created by David Weber and published by Baen Books. They are centered on the space navy career of the principal ...
'' series by David Weber
David Mark Weber (born October 24, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He has written several science-fiction and fantasy books series, the best known of which is the Honorverse, Honor Harrington science-fiction series. His ...
. A physicist by his name (and his wife, Mary Kay) appear in ''Callahan's Touch'' by Spider Robinson
Spider Robinson (born November 24, 1948) is an American-born Canadian list of science fiction authors, science fiction author. He has won a number of awards for his hard science fiction and humorous stories, including the Hugo Award 1977 and 198 ...
, where he shoots a cluricaune with a fire extinguisher. His song "Fire in the Sky" is featured in the novel ''Fallen Angels A fallen angel is an angel that has been exiled or banished from Heaven.
Fallen Angels may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Fallen Angels'' (1948 film), a Greek film by Nikos Tsiforos
* Fallen Angels (1985 documentary film) by Gregory Dark
* ...
'' by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn.
Death
In June 2017, Kare's wife Mary Kay announced via Twitter that his aortic valve
The aortic valve is a valve in the heart of humans and most other animals, located between the left ventricle and the aorta. It is one of the four valves of the heart and one of the two semilunar valves, the other being the pulmonary valve. The ...
was failing and needed to be replaced.[People have said they didn't see my earlier posts so reposting. Jordin's aortic valve is failing. He is having surgery June 28 to replace...]
by Mary Kay Kare, on Twitter; published June 21, 2017; retrieved July 19, 2017 On July 19, she announced that he had died.[Jordin's heart stopped is pm & could not be restarted. He's gone. I am having him cremated here & will take him home asap.]
by Mary Kay Kare; published July 19, 2017; retrieved July 19, 2017
Publications
Musical
* Two self-published albums of his songs, ''Fire in the Sky'' (1991; distributed by Wail Songs) and ''Parody Violation: Jordin Kare Straight and Twisted'' (2000)
Honors
* Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowship, ending in 1984
* Seven nominations for the Pegasus Award
The Pegasus Award is the premier award for filk music
and is annually hosted at the Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF).
Awards
The Pegasus Awards were founded to recognize and honor excellence in filking. As science fiction (sci-fi) became better kn ...
* Won 2010 Pegasus Award for Best Classic Filk Song, "Fire in the Sky"
* Won 2017 Pegasus Award (tie) for Best Writer/Composer (posthumous)
References
External links
* Bibliography o
scientific publications
(from Google Scholar). Retrieved 2017-8-3.
* List o
(from USPTO
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...
). Retrieved 2017-8-3.
interview
(The Space Show).
*
The Westerfilk Collection
' Annotated list of contributors and contents. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kare, Jordin
1956 births
2017 deaths
American aerospace engineers
American physicists
Filkers
MIT School of Engineering alumni
Scientists from Ithaca, New York
Science fiction fans
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Engineers from New York (state)
Harriton High School alumni
MIT Department of Physics alumni