mark poyhonen
Author
Not much is really known about this character but we will describe what little can be verified. He was born in '48 and abandoned by his parents. His most pleasant memory as a young man was serving as a ranch hand, herding cattle in Canada. He seems to have been a recalcitrant student who, after graduating from High School, lied about his age.... more
Not much is really known about this character but we will describe what little can be verified. He was born in '48 and abandoned by his parents. His most pleasant memory as a young man was serving as a ranch hand, herding cattle in Canada. He seems to have been a recalcitrant student who, after graduating from High School, lied about his age and bribed a union printer to fake being his uncle. The 'uncle' sponsored him into a union job moving heavy paper rolls for Chicago newspapers, print shops, and dockside warehouses.
He enlisted in the Air Force in '67. After declining their offer to send him to the Air Force Academy, the government chose to station him in a classified facility supporting satellite systems operations command and control.
He left the Air Force in '75, after the war, and worked as a technical advisor for TRW. Most of his professional life appears to have been involved with secret government projects. He programmed software, built databases, and maintained command and control software. Eventually he left TRW, owned a restaurant for a time, but eventually returned to his old career working for other aerospace companies.
He wrote the handbook for Air Force Satellite Control Network tracking and mission orbit planning tasks. He trained others in mission planning and satellite operations. He built simulators and performed systems integration for several projects. His paper on 'Archetype Based Design' formed the basis of Lockheed Martin's trademarked Architecture Based Design.
Despite his technical achievements concerning complex satellite systems scheduling, systems integration, and systems design, it appears that he was under educated for the work he successfully accomplished. He has been described as being an uncompromising stickler, especially when lives and millions of dollars were at stake. When asked about why he retired, he succinctly replied, "Ethics." The details of this answer will most likely never be known.
Now when he is not researching or writing he spends time with his lovely wife and his faithful dog, Delmas.