This schematic is the product of many people and that is what makes it inspiring.

So many
people have worked for decades to develop better and better rocket engines. This russian
rocket engine is the pinnacle of international collaboration.

This is the b-58 hustler, a supersonic nuclear bomber ​the B-58 set 19 world speed records​. In it’s
time it was outfitted with four of the most powerful turbojets, and could carry four nuclear
payloads. This shows that competition leads to innovation but not always the kind that saves
lives.
This Image is the Hubble deep field this single image answered some of astronomy's most
pressing questions. Every single dot in this image is a galaxy with an average of 100 billion
stars per galaxy every time the dot gets 2 times smaller you are looking an estimated 5 million
more years into the past. The blackness in this image is literally an look of the beginning of the
universe
This is an image of the pillars of the creation by the hubble space telescope. These pillars of
gas are a molecular cloud where stars are born. These spinning balls of plasma are the only
thing we know to harbor life but even they are mortal. Are they alive?
This may look like part of a trailer for a new sci-fi trailer this actually a screenshot from my
favorite video game. The part that of this picture that inspires me is not the fond memories I
have playing this game, but the sheer amount of innovation and technology that went into these
advanced graphics. The dynamic lighting the many high resolution textures and well rendered
3d models all somehow able to be played on a souped up laptop. But, the more amazing part is
that fact that there are over a million explorable stars and that my computer can create a
realistic looking star system in the span of 20 seconds.
Now this is a game I’ve never played it is the precursor to the game above release for the
Commodore 64​ on ​September 20, 1984. This game pioneered the vector graphics that would
lead video games into the modern era. It is crazy to think that only 30 years later this games
sequel would look so different.
This mineral is a variety of the mineral corundum. Besides it’s beautiful red color is is fluorescent
meaning is will absorb certain wavelengths of light and re-emit the energy as light at a specific
wavelength. This mineral seems trivial but because of it’s fluorescent properties it was used to
create the very first laser ever, another technology used almost unknowingly today.
This image is humbling and beautiful. For reference that dot in the picture is earth taken some 4
billion miles away. So many hundreds of years of development to create a rocket that could
even take a rock up to space, many more to develop the technology to take a picture and send
it back. This all happened on a pale blue dot.
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone
you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.
The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and
economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and
destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and
father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician,
every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species
lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all
those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary
masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one
corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how
frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their
hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged
position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in
the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help
will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the
near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the
moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is
perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our
tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to
preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

This famous quote by Carl Sagan gives me a sense of awe and wonder and makes me think
about our place in the universe. I completely agree with the first sentence of the last paragraph
of his quote. Astronomy demonstrates the size of the universe and our insignificance while
highlighting the many advancements that led humanity to this understanding.
This is a picture of Howard Grotts; he is an olympic cross country mountain biker who grew up
in Durango. He competed in many of the same races as I do as a highschooler, and rode with
Devo U-19 the local high school mountain biking group. This inspires me not because I want to
be an olympic athlete but because someone like me just needed to be committed to his dream
to achieve it.
This is a picture of the grand teton a place that i’ve never been but that is what is inspiring and
exciting. So many places I haven’t been or been able to explore. This summer hopefully I will be
on the top of that peak and find the enjoyment of exploring a new place.
https://www.speedrun.com/run/ydq0woqm
This is a world record speed run done for the game portal. This video not only shows the power
of the internet to bring small communities together, but of those communities to do something
thought to be impossible. The world record run of this game would not have been possible if it
wasn't for someone discovering the out of bounds trick, and sharing it.

This is a picture of the Giant Crystal Cave a cave discovered in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico
during a mine expansion. This place is inspiring because it shows how little of the earth we have
explored. This image also shows the amazing feats nature can accomplish when given time.
This is a soft x-ray image of the largest solar flare ever recorded. I find It amazing how much
energy can be released in a little burp on the sun’s surface. What is more amazing is that these
million megaton explosions on the sun’s surface are just caused by it’s tangled magnetic field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_Wc5R4TY5o
This is a video of a test of the RS-25 engines the same engine that powered the space shuttle.
The immense power of these rocket engines is astounding. Amazingly the giant plume of
exhaust being ejected from the test tower is not some toxic gas but actually pure water.
This is a self captured composite picture of the curiosity rover. Looking towards the rovers arm’s
shadow you will see stitch lines this is because the picture was created with many different
pictures and stitched together. The curiosity rover is an amazing piece of technology the size of
a small car. Run on a plutonium reactor that will last for a minimum of 14 years. Imagine driving
for 14 years straight without having to refuel.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/06/are-planets-biologicalorganisms-worlds-leading
-expert-says-yes.html
The article above talks about how some people believe that planets should be considered
“alive” like the organisms that we are. This is interesting and thought provoking. I wonder how
we would treat the earth differently if we considered it alive?

“Currently 74% of the united states’ power consumption is energy from the sun the other 26% is
energy left over from stars previous to ours.” -Henry Haggart
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_in_the_united_states
This is a thought I had while taking physics last year, and it really puts things into perspective.
Our shift from fossil fuels to solar energy is just a shift to a more direct source.
This is a General Electric genx jet engine. This engine goes to show sometimes a simple
answer is a great answer. This engine design saved literal tons of fuel this year by adding one
gearbox to the engine. This gearbox allowed the turbine and the compressor could turn at
separate speeds.

The estimated equilibrium temperature of GJ 581g is 228 K, placing it squarely in the middle of
the habitable zone of the star and offering a very compelling case for a potentially habitable
planet around a very nearby star… . If the local stellar neighborhood is a representative sample
of the galaxy as a whole, our Milky Way could be teeming with potentially habitable planets.

— Steven S. Vogt, R. Paul Butler, Eugenio J. Rivera, Nader Haghighipour, Gregory W. Henry
and Michael H. Williamson, 'The Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey: A 3.1 M⊕ Earth Planet in the
Habitable Zone of the Nearby M3V Star Gliese 581.' The planet is the most earthlike planet yet
discovered, at a press conference the same day Steven Vogt said, "the chances of life on this
planet are almost 100%." Submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal on 29
September 2010
This is a quote that is thought provoking. We know of so many planets we cannot visit, but even
though the odds we find an alien are slim the chance that there has never been and never been
a technologically advanced is much slimmer.
This is my favorite book a chinese sci-fi novel that seems closer to the modern day than you
would think. This book makes me wonder if life exists in places other than earth and what oddd
creature they could be.
This is a piece of temporary art by Brazilian sculptor Néle Azevedo. I see temporary art as
inspiring. There was so much work put into each one of those ice sculptures just for them to
return to the chaotic state they were once in.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-can-graphite-and-diam/
This article Is about the properties of diamond and graphite, and how they can be made of the
exact same thing. I find this so odd. It is crazy that people are willing to fight over a special
chunk of coal.

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/semiconductorlaserdiodes.html
This article explains how semiconductor lasers work. Many of these inventions baffle me, one
small invention can create a revolution.

“if one takes quantum theory into account, it seems that black holes are not quite black!
Instead, they should glow slightly with Hawking radiation”
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/BlackHoles/hawking.html
Many of the ideas surrounding the theory of Hawking radiation are seemingly stupidly untrue.
One odd statement of the theory is that a vacuum which contains literally nothing , somehow,
has energy.
This is a hot spring in Rico, CO what is special about this spring is that it was originally a bore
hole. I now wonder would a spring have formed naturally?
This is a molybdenum oxide mineral called wulfenite. This beautiful mineral has inspired me to
start collecting in the molybdenum rich San Whan area in hopes of finding some.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/feature/nasa-tests-new-alloy-to-fold-wings-in-flight.html
This is a nasa article about a new alloy that could allow aircraft to fold their wings to different
angles mid flight. Chemistry is amazing with over just 100 elements we still are discovering new
ways to use them.
This is Molybdenite another mineral that I have been inspired to search for because of its
beauty.
This is Sphalerite a very pretty black mineral that I found only because I did research into the
locations of tailings piles and, what mines they were connected to.