Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1248324
26 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2020 most top of our list right now. Material things can wait. Check on that loved one, neighbor, or friend. This, like all the challenges we have faced in the past, will end in time. We cannot bring those lost back. We cannot restart too fast and risk further loss. The curve is flattening. What we are doing today affects those who might be infected to- morrow. It is not an overwhelming request— a few months of sacrifice to save many lives that will continue. My wife is in the healthcare field, and healthcare professionals are on the frontline every day. They can't social distance; they take this monster head-on. Being this close in my circle gives me a huge sense of admiration for those doctors, nurses, and all those healthcare workers who have put their lives on the line to save yours. Doctors and nurses are sleeping in the garage or a back- yard tent to save their families from possible exposure, fighting for your lives at the possible cost of their own. So, what is important today? Winning this battle over COVID-19 and giving all of us the chance to continue to thrive. Science is telling us to slow down, keep your distance, wash your hands, wear your mask, and stay home when possible. This isn't for- ever, but losing a loved one to COVID-19 is. Take a moment to look in the mirror. Do you want to be able to look at yourself in a year, two, three, or 10? As I write this, someone out there just lost their chance due to COVID-19. You may not know you have it. You could carry it without symptoms. However, who you may give it to may not be as strong as you. Be a hero and downshift to the new normal for a bit. Life will not pass you by, and you could very well unknowingly save someone else from losing theirs. Stay safe, stay healthy, and God bless our healthcare teams of heroes. PCB007 Todd Kolmodin is VP of quality for Gardien Services USA and an expert in electrical test and reliability issues. To read past columns or contact Kolmodin, click here. from Earth; they are usually so small that light from the sun needs to illuminate it in a certain way for our telescopes to even detect it," said Linares. "And they are traveling so fast that it's hard to pull together and launch a mission from Earth in the small window of opportunity we have before it's gone. We would have to get there fast, and current propul- sion technologies are a limiting factor." To eliminate these barriers, Linares proposes using "statites"—or static satellites—enabled by a solar sail constructed with just the right mass-to-area ratio. A thin- enough sail with a large enough surface area will create a propulsive force that allows the statite to hover in place indefinite- ly. Linares envisions deploying a constellation of statites to act as interstellar watchdogs along the edges of our solar system, lying in wait until roused by an ISO cross- ing our threshold. (Source: MIT News) In 2017, a telescope in Hawaii detected our first celes- tial visitor from another solar system—a big deal, since we haven't quite figured out how to visit them ourselves yet. Ou- muamua, the cigar-shaped interstellar object (ISO) whose name roughly translates to "first distant messenger" in Ha- waiian, will certainly not be the last visitor to pass through. Even a tiny fragment traveling a long way for a short visit provides a tremendous opportunity for scientific discovery. But we will have to catch it first. Richard Linares, an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) at MIT, devel- oped a concept for a "dynamic or- bital slingshot for rendezvous with interstellar objects." He outlined his idea in a research proposal that was recently selected as a Phase 1 study in the NASA Innovative Ad- vanced Concepts (NIAC) Program. "There are a lot of fundamental challenges with observing ISOs To Catch an Interstellar Visitor, Use a Solar-powered Space Slingshot