Keith Lofstrom

Keith Lofstrom (born 1953 in Portland, Oregon)^[1] is an American electrical engineer. He has a BSEE and MSEE from University of California, Berkeley.^[2] He is more widely known in the space advocacy community for a ground-based space launcher design, the Launch Loop,^[3][4][5] for which he has been credited by name in several works of science fiction.^[6][7][8][9] Frederik Pohl, who used the idea in several of his stories, once wrote that, of all the non-rocket spacelaunch concepts, he liked the Lofstrom Loop "best of all."^[10]

As an electrical engineer, Lofstrom specializes in mixed-signal integrated circuit design. A paper he wrote on boundary scan methods was one of two to receive an Honorable Mention at the 1997 IEEE International Test Conference.^[11] One of his 9 patents is for a way to read an individual digital ID for integrated circuits that arises from random atomic variations inherent in the semiconductor device fabrication process.^[12][13][14]

One of his more recent efforts in speculative space systems is Server Sky, a very large satellite constellation in Earth orbit using thin-film solar cells to power data center computers integrated into the same wafers as the PV cells.^[15]

He is signed up for cryopreservation with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, since 1992.^[1]