HIGH SEAS

HIGH SEAS Class ACT

The Burger Boat Company’s 50 Cruiser has the grandeur of a superyacht in a smaller package

By Howard Walker

There’s this term, “gentleman’s yacht.” Can’t say I know precisely what the definition is. But for me, it conjures an image of vintage style and elegance, with sleek, simple, timeless lines—and lots of varnished mahogany and mirror-polished stainless steel.

See a yacht like this on the water and it moves with grace and pace, parting waves like a hot knife through butter. And being a true gentlemanly vessel, it would have a sunkissed George Clooney at the helm.

The artisans at Wisconsin-based Burger Boat Company have been building gentlemen’s yachts since the early 1900s. Their newest is the compact Burger 50 Cruiser, which carries on those traditions yet seamlessly merges eons-old boatbuilding techniques with some very cool technology.

Just gazing at the yacht makes my heart soar. It is strong and purposeful, with curves in all the right places, miles of varnished cap rails, and decks of teak. It oozes class in the same way a Hinckley, Hunt, or Hood does. But it doesn’t sacrifice function for form. I love the 50 Cruiser’s tall, glass-filled pilothouse, with its slender pillars that ensure a 360-degree, CinemaScope view from the wheel. Top marks as well for the wide decks and high rails for safe line-handling. Not to mention that deep foredeck sofa with wellpositioned cupholders and music speakers for cocktail-hour cruises.

Yes, I wish the hull was 5 feet longer at the bow to visually stretch the lines. From some angles, the Cruiser does look a little on the stubby side. But 50 feet bow to stern is just about the perfect size for an owner/driver to comfortably work the boat.

And comfort is the watchword here. Much of that is due to the unique shape of the aluminum hull that came off the computer screens of legendary Dutch naval architects Vripack. Using their patented Slide Hull design, cleverly positioned underwater strakes lift the boat and channel air underneath. Additional win-win benefits of the hull design include improved fuel efficiency, an impressive turn of speed, and a smoother ride in gnarly seas.

Speaking of efficiency and top speed, the Burger gets its power from a pair of 600-horsepower Volvo Penta D8s. They’re

POWER FILE

coupled to spacesaving IPS drives with joystick controls for magical, slide-it-sideways maneuvering.

Those muscley twin-turbo straight-sixes can punch the 50 to a top speed of 31 knots, or throttle back for an easy 26-knot cruising speed. Burger makes sure they’re well-insulated and whisper quiet too; no gentleman likes to raise his voice.

The interior layout is the work of Miamibased De Basto Designs, which has kept the theme bright, especially in the airy salon, with cream-colored fabrics and veneers. The narrowish cabin has a well-equipped galley on the starboard side, opposite the U-shaped sofa-cum-dinette. The power-sliding sunroof adds light and air and makes for perfect dining under the stars.

The back deck features an almost full-width sofa and mirror-varnished table for entertaining. A barbecue, a sink, and counter space is built into the transom, and a huge hydraulic

PRICE: UPON REQUEST

swim platform makes it possible to launch a

LENGTH: 50 FEET

tender—or a 10-year-old swimmer—into the

BEAM: 15 FEET, 2 INCHES

DRAFT: 4 FEET, 3 INCHES water. To stow all those must-have water toys, POWER: 2 X 600-HP there’s even an in-hull garage at the stern. VOLVO PENTA D8 Back inside, steps leading down from the saDIESELS TOP SPEED: 31 lon take you below decks, where there’s a gorKNOTS WHY WE LOVE geous, full-beam owner’s suite with massive IT: BECAUSE IT’S THE hull windows. Up in the bow there’s an equally TRUE DEFINITION OF AN spacious forward VIP cabin. While there’s no

ELEGANT, CUSTOM-BUILT

bunk room for the kids, Burger is quick to point

GENTLEMAN’S YACHT.

out that the 50 Cruiser, like all Burger boats, is very much a custom build. Within reason, you can get whatever layout you want. For now, Burger is staying mum as to the price of this new 50 Cruiser. But the astonishing quality and craftsmanship, wonderful fit and finish, and high level of equipment will ensure it isn’t cheap. But then again, a true gentleman wouldn’t dream of asking the price. Naturally, money is «no object.

THE SKY

COURTESY OF NASA

LIMITIS NOT THE

WHAT’S NEXT FOR SPACE TRAVEL? FROM THE MOON TO MARS AND BEYOND, CENTRAL FLORIDA IS SHAPING THE FUTURE.

BY KRISTEN DESMOND LEFEVRE

Clockwise from top left: NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover drills for soil samples; astronauts install high-definition cameras using technology developed at Florida Tech; the Robinson Observatory at the University of Central Florida.

Inset: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Bound for Mars, its payload included Perseverence, NASA’s newest red planet rover that is searching for signs of past life to give researchers insights into planetary conditions.

COURTESY OF NASA

NASA/TONY GRAY AND TIM POWERS

left and right: Blue angular wall panels with fluted edges unify the dining room and the kitchen, where a Calacatta gold marble, waterfall-edge island by ADP

THE PLACE FOR SPACE

A DASH OF ISOLATED SWAMPLAND MIXED WITH A WHOLE LOT OF INGENUITY MADE CENTRAL FLORIDA A WORLD LEADER IN THE SPACE INDUSTRY. BUT HOW? AND WHY HERE?

The state’s booming commercial space industry—from NASA to SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin—provides jobs for nearly 100,000 Floridians at the more than 470 aerospace and aviation companies that do business here (to the tune of more than $7.6 billion in exported goods annually).

But it hasn’t always been this way. Florida underwent a revolution in the 1950s. With the U.S. and the former Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, the space race was born. In 1958, the U.S. established NASA—building a state-of-the-art launch facility on ideally isolated Merritt Island. The location was strategic: Its peninsular position allows spacecraft to launch over open water (a safer alternative to launching over populated land). And the area’s proximity to the Equator (where the Earth’s spin is slightly stronger) gives a natural boost to rockets as they lift off into orbit.

By 1963, the federal government had acquired roughly 140,000 acres of land to build the Kennedy Space Center. Sleepy fishing towns stretching from Titusville to Melbourne were flooded with a veritable army of engineers, scientists, and technicians—all working to fulfill President Kennedy’s moonshot goal. And by 1969, Apollo 11 blasted off, sparking not only a national obsession with space, but a boom for the local aerospace industry.

Since then, the 72-mile triangle from Cape Canaveral to Palm Bay to Orlando has become a destination for rocket geeks, space nerds, and astronaut wannabes—and more importantly, the next generation of space professionals and scientists who are leading the global effort to push humanity’s reach beyond our home planet.

Dale Ketcham, vice president of government and external relations with Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development agency, says that ongoing NASA missions, university research projects, and private spaceflight innovations aim to establish Central Florida as “the most successful launch site on the planet.”

Andrew Aldrin, director of Florida Tech’s Aldrin Space Institute, says the area is well on its way to becoming more than just what he calls “a

Andrew Aldrin, director of the Aldrin Space Institute at Florida Tech

pack-it-up-and-shoot-it-off” location. (And yes, he’s related to that Aldrin; his father, Buzz, was the lunar module pilot on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, where he and mission commander Neil Armstrong were famously the first humans to land on the moon.)

Aldrin says his father wanted to find a university where he could work with faculty and students to start to build on some of his ideas. Florida Tech’s proximity to Kennedy Space Center simply couldn’t be beat. “We are very much in the center of things,” Aldrin says.

But, he adds, “ample opportunities still abound for Central Florida to become a true global hub of the commercial space industry.” He notes that welcoming more companies like One Web—a satellite production company that is planning to open the world’s first highvolume satellite production facility in Cape Canaveral—will be the next step toward solidifying the region’s prowess as Space Central.

“We’re starting to see an early bridge between our launch infrastructure on the Space Coast and the intellectual infrastructure in Orlando,” Aldrin says. “That’s a hub of computer science, software development, and aerospace and defense work. When those resources all start to connect, I think that’s when we’ll really begin to reach a critical mass.”

COURTESY OF NASA

KEEPING UP WITH KENNEDY

WHAT’S NEW—AND WHAT’S NEXT—AT THE PLACE THAT FUELS FLORIDA’S ROCKET CRAZE

Robert Cabana, Associate Administrator of NASA and a veteran astronaut of four Space Shuttle flights, has his sights set on the moon—for now. What we can learn by returning to the moon (and staying for an extended period of time) will help us to one day live in space and go to Mars—and beyond.

NASA’s next big mission is known as Artemis, aptly named for the twin sister of Apollo. “That’s going to take us back to the moon and put the first woman on the moon and next man in 2024,” Cabana says. “The moon is a stepping-stone. We still have a lot to learn if we’re going to maintain humans on Mars, which of course is the ultimate goal.” If NASA’s Artemis timeline goes as planned, we may see an unmanned moon shot from the Kennedy Space Center in late 2021.

For Cabana, exploring beyond our home planet is not optional; it’s critical. “When I was selected as an astronaut, I was working for one of my heroes: John Young,” Cabana says. “John always said a single planet species will not survive. We have to push the boundaries of exploration for the good of humankind.”

What scientists learn on the moon and on Mars, Cabana notes, will have profound impacts on our understanding of Earth. “The moon used to be part of the Earth,” he explains. “When we go to the moon, we’re going to see pristine elements of what Earth was like when it was formed—things that have not been eroded over time and affected by an atmosphere. Same thing with Mars, which at one time had an atmosphere and flowing water. What happened to it? How did it end up like it is? These questions are what drive us to learn and explore.”

NASA/GLENN BENSON NASA/KIM SHIFLETT NASA/KIM SHIFLETT

Below: Associate Administrator of NASA Robert Cabana speaks to aspiring astronauts.

Andrew Palmer’s astrobiology lab at Florida Tech features a “Martian Garden.” Palmer’s research aims to identify plants that will grow in regolith.

NASA/DIMITRI GERONDIDAKIS HITTING PAYDIRT

WHAT CAN RESEARCHERS LEARN FROM GETTING DOWN AND DIRTY WITH REGOLITH? MORE THAN YOU MIGHT THINK.

Dan Britt knows his dirt. But when you’re talking about dirt that comes from somewhere other than Earth, it’s called regolith. Britt, the Pegasus Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at the University of Central Florida’s department of physics, says that regardless of whether regolith comes from the surface of the moon, Mars, an asteroid, or some other planetary body, it holds the key to human survival on places other than Earth.

A long-time veteran of NASA science teams (he even has an asteroid named after him), Britt heads the NASA-funded Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS). “We’re working to understand how the process of moving around, extracting resources, or building habitats is affected by the stuff that you run into on the surface,” he explains.

While studying alien dirt may seem basic, Britt says that using what’s available in outer space (and regolith is plentiful) is critical to the success of establishing an off-Earth base. “We call it in situ resource utilization,” Britt says. “It’s a fancy way of saying: ‘Use what’s there and don’t bring it with you if you don’t have to.’” It’s a concept driven by economy, and it’s measured by gear ratio, which tells you how many pounds of rocket fuel is required to transport a pound of cargo to a given destination. For a Mars mission, the gear ratio is more than 250—that is, for every pound of cargo, the rocket will need to burn 250 pounds of fuel in order to reach the surface of Mars. “That adds up over time,” Britt says. “Things like oxygen you breathe, fuel you can use for your trip home, or construction materials to build habitats—if we can use what’s available on Mars, the moon, asteroids, or wherever you’re going to develop those resources, it would be a much better plan than dragging it along with us.”

Britt’s research is setting the stage for NASA to begin to make plans to effectively use the resources available in outer space on future missions. “What resources do we have? What resources can we use to our advantage?” he asks. Answering those questions, he says, will help develop the pathways needed to turn raw materials into finished products. “We’re mapping and developing both a physical and a mental infrastructure,” he adds. “This way we can push ourselves to those frontiers where there’s nothing on the map just yet.”

Using samples of Martian meteorites, pieces of asteroids that have fallen to

UCF’s Dan Britt studies a piece of regolith.

Top: Andrew Palmer guides a Florida Tech student experimenting with simulated Martian regolith.

DOMINIC AGOSTINI PHOTOGRAPHY

Earth, and moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, Britt’s UCF lab has developed a series of regolith simulants, material that mimics what you’d find on a specific alien surface. Research labs worldwide use the regolith simulant to conduct research on everything from dust mitigation to crop production to creating building materials.

You’ll find Britt’s Martian regolith simulant inside Andrew Palmer’s lab just an hour’s drive away at Florida Tech in Melbourne. The material contains few minerals, a lot of chlorine, and no organic matter, making it a poor home for plants. Palmer—who is working to discover how to grow food on Mars—sees that as not only a challenge, but an opportunity. He says it comes down to elements: nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. These are the building blocks of what you need to grow plants. But Martian regolith contains almost no nitrogen. That’s where Palmer’s research comes in. “We’re trying to understand how little nutrients we need to provide to plants in order for them to survive,” he explains.

Palmer and his team are discovering which crops thrive in a harsh regolith host. His lab has already grown peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, and tobacco. Now they’re looking to identify plant varieties that can be selected or engineered to grow at maximum effectiveness. Eventually, they’ll assess the quality of food crops grown in regolith. “Is it good to eat?” Palmer asks. “Will it be nutritious?”

But it’s not just about what we might need to add to Martian regolith (like nitrogen) to make it more hospitable. Palmer says we can also improve it by removing elements, like toxic perchlorates. “By pulling those out you could get a double effect: more hospitable regolith and a resource to manufacture rocket fuel for the trip home,” he explains. “More things you don’t have to pack into a spacecraft.”

Eventually, Palmer would like to work with more varieties of regolith simulant— including some that represent specific areas of Mars. He says knowing which regions of the planet feature the most hospitable regolith could impact the selection of future landing sites. “If we can say that a certain simulant mirrors a particular region of Mars and plants grow okay in it, then we can put a tick mark by the food safety part of the landing site selection criteria.”

In the end, growing food on Mars is about survival. But it’s more than that, Palmer says. “The journey from Earth to Mars could be six months. That’s why growing food on Mars is a necessity: If something goes wrong, people could be stranded for nine months to a year. But it’s also going to be a stressful environment, and I think that growing plants and having something green around you could be a reminder of home. It’s a connection that I think will be very powerful.”

DOMINIC AGOSTINI PHOTOGRAPHY

Inset: Regolith research includes testing a rover’s ability to maneuver on Mars’ surface. Right: Professor Philip Metzger works with students at NASA.

READY, ROBOTS

NASA/KIM SHIFLETT

COULD ROBOTS IN SPACE BE THE SOLUTION FOR THE WORLD’S ENERGY CRISIS? ONE LOCAL RESEARCHER IS BETTING ON IT.

Philip Metzger, a long-time NASA veteran who currently works as a planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida, sees space as the next frontier. But, he says, letting robots go into space while humans stay put may be the key to improving the outlook here on our home planet.

“Our civilization has expanded to the point that we are outgrowing our planet,” Metzger warns. “We’re stressing the Earth and causing climate change, depleting our best resources.”

To fix this, Metzger believes we must learn how to put the machinery of industry off the surface of our planet, in space. “When you find you’ve overgrown the planet, you don’t solve that by punishing people,” Metzger says. “You solve that by attacking the root problem, which is we’ve got too much going on on one planet, so let’s get it off the planet.”

Metzger notes that the most feasible products to outsource to space are massless—namely, energy and data—and that the key to off-Earth industry is robotic automation. “If we can create a complete supply chain in these sectors where robots are doing the work, and even creating additional robot workers as needed, then the labor cost eventually vanishes,” he says.

By moving energy and computing sectors into space, Metzger estimates that we could relieve the Earth of half of its industrial burden by the end of the century. He admits that our robotics capabilities are not where they need to be—but they could get there in 40 to 50 years.

Sound like science fiction? Metzger understands. “It’s hard for people to envision it because people tend to imagine the way things are right now,” he says. That’s why he’s focused on finding the intermediate steps that will get people and politicians thinking about the viability of off-planet supply chain businesses that sound more like science fact.

One of those businesses involves a method of mining moon ice, which can be turned into rocket fuel or used in communication between satellite thrusters. Studies are underway to analyze the economics of the project and to develop the technology needed to sort ice from grains of moon dust. Metzger and his partners estimate that if they can figure out a way to provide that service for $50 million per spacecraft, then it’ll be a profitable—and early—off-Earth business. (And should humans ever create communities on Mars, they’ll be his customers as they travel back and forth.)

Some researchers are focused on getting to Mars or other planets. Not Metzger. “Planets are where you want to make your home,” he says. “But I want to learn to live beyond planets. I’m not interested in going to another planet and trying to learn how to live there. I’m more interested in developing the machinery that supports the planet without damaging the planet.”

Since his boyhood days watching Carl Sagan on TV, Florida Tech astrobiology assistant professor Manasvi Lingam has had a suspicion that humans are not alone in the universe. Now his latest research says the rocky red terrain of Mars may cover a rich environment full of life.

Using models of biospheres with the characteristics of Mars and Earth, Lingam and his team discovered that it’s possible for organisms to live under the surface of the red planet. The groundbreaking findings come on the heels of recent work by Italian researchers who have suggested that salty lakes lie beneath Mars’ south polar ice cap.

Lingam warns that just because his work has shown there is the potential for life and water under the surface of Mars, it doesn’t mean we’ll see large marine animals swimming there. Instead, he suggests it’s more likely we’d find primitive organisms like microbes and, perhaps, worms.

Lingam’s next move? Building on his research by looking at missions that would explore whether other planets and heavenly bodies have the potential to harbor life. “I would like to extend this study to other worlds,” Lingam says. “The goal would be to drill into a planet like Mars to sample the soil and rock and see what’s out there.”

Researchers hope NASA’s Perseverence rover— shown here in an artist’s rendering—will unlock new Martian insights.

COURTESY OF NASA

GOING UNDERGROUND

HAVE RESEARCHERS BEEN LOOKING FOR ALIEN LIFE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES?

Florida Tech student Alyssa Carson is training to be among the next generation of space explorers.

//Q&A// EYES ON THE SKIES

Alyssa Carson was 3 years old when she told her father she wanted to be an astronaut, with her sights set on going to Mars. In the years that followed, Carson completed NASA Space Camps from Florida to Texas, Canada to Turkey—making her the only person to attend every NASA-sponsored camp. And don’t think she’s flying outside of the agency’s radar: In 2013, NASA invited then-11-year-old Carson to sit on the MER 10 panel to discuss future missions to Mars. She was later selected as one of seven ambassadors representing Mars One, a mission to establish a human base on Mars by 2030. At 15, Carson was the youngest person to be accepted to and graduate from the Project Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere (known as the Advanced POSSUM Space Academy), officially making her certified to go to space and become a future astronaut trainee. At 18, she earned her pilot’s license. Now 20, Alyssa is positioning herself to be among the next generation of space explorers. We caught up with the Florida Tech junior to find out more about what drives her—and what lies ahead.

OI: Why space travel? And why Mars?

Carson: One day we do have to learn how to travel somewhere else. It’s [about] taking a broader view; not just thinking about what’s going on in the world right now, but thinking ahead to where we might be thousands of years from now. It’s not that going to Mars is going to save the population of Earth. Mars is in our same solar system, so if the sun were to burn out or something, Mars would be out of luck, too. But it’s starting the process: learning how to travel to another planet, learning how to set up a base there. Of course, there’s a sense of adventure and opportunity that plays into it too. We’re at the point where technology is nearly ready to take us to Mars. We might as well do it. And it might as well be me.

There are some big risks inherent in traveling to a place like Mars—from radiation to a lack of oxygen to possible physiological tolls. Does that worry you?

I’m kind of at a point where I’ve learned about the risks for so long that many of them seem normal to me now. But more than that, I’ve learned about the solutions that NASA and other groups have come up with to try to keep astronauts safe. And there are still risks they haven’t figured out how to handle, so we definitely couldn’t just get up and go there tomorrow. But meeting the people who are working to figure these things out has really put me at ease. When you see how dedicated they are to safety, you feel like you’re in good hands.

Some of the proposed missions to Mars have astronauts staying there for long periods of time or even indefinitely. Would you be up for a permanent residence on the red planet?

If that was the only option, I would be up for it. I would prefer to return, of course. But if it was the only option I would still want to go. At this point there is so much to benefit from a return flight, that it seems likely. I’m sure our scientists here on Earth would love to get their hands on the things we could bring back— rocks and other samples for even more research—not to mention just the morale boost and excitement from having astronauts return to Earth from Mars and what a feat that would be.

How can sending astronauts to Mars help regular people on Earth?

Space travel is not just science in a vacuum. What we learn pushes us in so many different ways that benefit the Earth. People don’t think about the technology we use every day that was either invented for the space program or by the space program. Something like a mission to Mars will push our technology even further, and a lot of the technology that will be invented to get us there can probably be used to solve problems we have on Earth.

What’s next on your path to becoming an astronaut?

Right now I’m focusing on my college classes. But some of the next steps include continuing with my pilot’s license, getting my instrument rating. I’m also looking to do an analog, which is a project where you’re simulating some of the conditions you’d experience in an alien environment. The one I’m looking at focuses on isolation, and it’s on a boat for 30 days. You and your crew members live as if you were on a mission to Mars—you grow food to eat, conduct missions together, things like that. I also plan on getting my skydiving certification—a little bit more freefall. I’m excited to experience that kind of environment.

SPACE-READY SCHOOLS

TWO SPACE COAST SCHOOLS ARE MAKING THEIR MARK AS THEY REACH FOR THE STARS

Clockwise from top left: Florida Tech alumna Sunita Williams performs a space walk; students at UCF use powerful tools to peer into the skies; an astrobiology major works in a Florida Tech lab.

Florida Tech

Melbourne’s Florida Institute of Technology is just a stone’s throw away from the Kennedy Space Center. Sure, the school has been there for every NASA launch, but in those 60-plus years, it’s built connections to the space industry far more complex than geography. • Astronaut Alumni: Six Space Shuttle astronauts are Florida Tech grads, including Sunita Williams, who was selected to crew the Boeing Starliner, set to launch in 2021. • Space Station Staple: In 2017, the school launched a highly specialized camera known as a Charge Injection Device (CID). Installed on the exterior of the International Space Station, the CID can capture very bright and very dim light to help scientists identify potential Earth-like planets beyond our solar system. • Aldrin Approved: Named for Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, the Aldrin Space Institute advances the goal of establishing and sustaining a human presence on Mars. • Program Prowess: Florida Tech offers the first undergraduate astrobiology program in the U.S., plus other space-related bachelor’s degrees, including astronomy, astrophysics, and planetary science. • Rich in Research: Supermassive black holes, planetary atmospheres, Mars rovers, zero-gravity simulators, solid rocket fuel, hybrid rockets, microgravity exercise equipment, and landing simulators are just a few of the space-related research projects underway at Florida Tech. • Geared Up: The school’s Ortega telescope is one of the largest research telescopes in the southeastern United States. • Digging the Dirt: Through a partnership with NASA, Florida Tech is conducting research into growing plants on simulated Martian soil and using 3D-printing technologies to create construction bricks from simulated Martian soil.

University of Central Florida

Drive through the Orlando campus of the University of Central Florida, and you start to notice the street names—Gemini Boulevard, Andromeda Loop, Apollo Circle— reflect UCF’s beginnings as a space university. Founded in 1963 to provide talent to the U.S. space program, UCF has been making an impact on outer space ever since. • Asking Big Questions: From creating high-res maps of water on the lunar surface, to finding ways to administer IV medicines in zero gravity, these are just some of the solar system–sized areas of research that UCF faculty are working on. • Star Searching: UCF’s Robinson Observatory houses a 20-inch telescope, offering students a training ground to collect solid data and conduct original research. • NASA Know-How: UCF faculty are part of several NASA missions and the university has received more than 330 NASA awards since 1991. • Knights in Space: Two UCF grads are finalists for a one-way flight to Mars as part of the Mars One project to establish a base. • Mission Ready: Thirty percent of all Kennedy Space Center employees are UCF alumni, and the university is the primary supplier of talent to the U.S. aerospace and defense industries. • Extraordinary Exoplanet: Not every university has a planet named after it. In 2012, UCF researchers discovered an exoplanet they named UCF-1.01, which is located 33 light-years away. «