Steve Jurvetson and Pablo Picasso

5:30 AM Moonset over the airfield---

We just passed 450 gallons--about 75% done. I am starting to think about what's next; after we finish this testing. I look back at where we started: here's a photo of Pablo Picasso and the heater for his atelier which bears an uncanny resemblance to our reactor, followed by a photo of "1.0". It seemed so simple then.

We keep this photo up inside the hangar.

To this, we have added 28 different levers, 14 sensors, argon gas, a flare and secondary burner, pre-heat tanks and a 3-stage evacuation chamber to dispell the waste contents on the fly at 700 degrees. It's insane.

I think back to when we presented to Steve Jurvetson and our powerpoint on operating the thing was one powerpoint slide. And the next slide was our seamless roll out of 100 reactors at a time for 200,000 deployments producing fuel that inspired us to use the "b" and "t" denominations.

What lurked inbetween of course were days and nights covered in our black tar byproduct, wrenches too slippery to hold, a tent city errected to eat and cook in while we ran 24 hours (fending off rats eating our staples) and required safety courses for operating forklifts.

But the moon is up, and I miss Steve and this happy day Peter and I went down to see one of the greatest minds of the Valley.

But today's work is about producing fuel: when i arrive, there are empty buckets; when i leave, there are full buckets. I don't question what we did that day, or need to ask if I was productive. I can't question what the bigger picture is because it's too daunting. Powerpoint makes it seem all so simple. But for now, we have a goal: 600 gallons.