Treatise: Abandoning OldSpace’s Conceit

Space Exploration is suffering an identity crisis. Like atmospheric flight before it, space exploration is evolving to include a spectrum of public and private participants, motivations, and goals. However, even amongst space enthusiasts and professionals, there is much (mostly friendly – I’ll get to that) debate regarding just what exactly it is that qualifies as […]

The National Space Exploration Administration

Is a National Space Exploration Administration the future of NASA? (Hypothetical logo credit: Ben McGee) I’m a convert. Yesterday, Apollo astroanut, geologist-moonwalker, and U.S. Senator Dr. Harrison “Jack” Schmitt made what amounts to one of the most daring space exploration suggestions to date: End NASA. -And I think I’m all for it. Allow me to explain. In a […]

Chasing Mars through Eldorado Valley

This past Friday I was fortunate enough to reunite with my friend Dr. Steve Metzger of the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) to participate in another field season of dust-devil-chasing with a platoon of Mars researchers. The crew this year included Dr. Asmin Pathare of PSI, Dr. Lori Fenton of the SETI Institute, Tim Michaels of […]

Target: Titan & Silicon-based life

Move over, Mars. According to new imagery from the Cassini spacecraft and new research recently published in the Journal of Cosmology, Saturn’s moon Titan may be the hottest exploration ticket in the Solar System. Up until only five years ago, the massive moon Titan was one of the last great mysteries in our neighborhood of planets. Itself […]

A beginning is a very delicate time…

Hello, and thanks for visiting my corner of the cyberverse. I’m a nigh-thirty-year-old theoretical-physics-inclined geologist who’s spent his entire life with his eyes toward the stars and is playing a tactical gambit to reach them. To start, let me make a note on the blog title. “Astro” relates (obviously) to stars, celestial objects, or outer […]