…the heck have I been? Well, dear readers… There’s been quite a gap in my posts save what I’d sent forward in time from the past. (The “jumping the timestream” posts were written and sent forward into the future by scheduling an automatic publish date years after they were written..) Why the gap? Lots and […]
Read More Catching up PART 1 – NESTWe recently lost one of humanity’s pioneers – one of twelve to step on another world and a man who made a distinct impact on me, though in an unexpected way. Famous for his belief in extraterrestrial life and dabbling in the science of consciousness and extrasensory perception, he is most widely known for […]
Read More Recalling Dr. Edgar MitchellUnintended Consequences My adventures as a scientist-host with the Travel Channel television series, “America Declassified” took me across the blinding flats of the White Sands Missile Range, which had unintended consequences. Unnervingly, it deposited a sliver in my mind that I simply cannot ignore. In forging outward across the staggeringly-immense, derelict runways we now know […]
Read More The Science Behind “America Declassified” – White SandsA bit of a long-winded digression today, but as a physical scientist at heart I can’t help myself. I’m riled. (Riled to the point of considering expanding the rant to follow into an article submission to the journal Ground Water or perhaps Arid Environments…) Allow me to explain. Industry vs. Academia First, for those who […]
Read More Forward Backward Thinking: Pipelines and Deep TimeThis has been nearly impossible for me to keep under my hat for so long, but after nearly a year of preliminary work, I am thrilled to announce that Astrowright Spaceflight Consulting LLC is open for business (www.astrowright.com). So, what is the venture specifically? The firm offers a suite of spaceflight-related services, including orbital and […]
Read More Introducing Astrowright Spaceflight Consulting LLCA quick note today pointing to an interview with astro-paleontology pioneer John Armitage that was recently published on the Space Archaeology blog. In short, Armitage pioneered research (see: Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, vol. 30, pp. 466-9, 1976) that was quite nearly lost to the sands of time until rescued by Steve Wilson and posted […]
Read More Resurrecting Astro-paleontologyBy education and trade, I’m a geologist, having worked now in the professional world for more than six years getting my boots dirty performing hydrogeology, water resources, drilling, geomorphology research, and environmental contaminant transport and remediation work in some of the most remote territory this country has to offer. However, in my push toward becoming […]
Read More A Radioactive Astronaut-Hopeful (Space update)I am excited to report that my article, “A call for proactive xenoarchaeological guidelines – Scientific, policy and socio-political considerations,” has been published online by the journal Space Policy as an in-press corrected proof as it awaits publication in an upcoming issue. (I mentioned working on it previously in a post here.) The thrust of […]
Read More Xenoarchaeology OnlinePlanetary Protection, despite how it sounds, does not refer to a Bruce-Willis-style suicide mission to save Earth from an incoming asteroid. However, it is one of those practical space exploration concerns that will only get more important with time. So, what is planetary protection (PP)? Think of it as the discipline of preventing the spread […]
Read More Dealing with space contaminationA quick note today on emergent technology. Right now, aerospace and defense mega-contractor Lockheed Martin is working with the military to develop the HULC exoskeleton. (That’s “Human Universal Load Carrier.”) The exoskeleton, which is moving into human beta-testing now, improves the endurance and load-carrying capacity of a given person nearly an order of magnitude. My […]
Read More Military powered exo-skeleton to create future SuperAstronauts?
Chronicles of an Atomic Astrowright 