Jordin Kare

Jordin T. Kare (October 24, 1956 – July 19, 2017) was an American physicist and aerospace engineer who researched laser propulsion. He was responsible for Mockingbird, a conceptual design for an extremely small (75 kg dry mass) reusable launch vehicle, and was involved in the Clementine lunar mapping mission. Kare also conceived the SailBeam interstellar propulsion technique. In the science fictionfan community, he was a composer, performer and recording artist of filk music.