Talking Space Radiation Dosimetry at NSRC 2013

I recently had the great pleasure to give a talk (and serve as co-author for a second) at the fourth annual Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC), held this year in Boulder, Colorado. As a one-of-a-kind collection of researchers, entrepreneurs, spacecraft providers, students, and government representatives, NSRC’s intent is to foster collaboration of a sort […]

A shotgun blast of suborbital science

I’m pleased to report that I recently had the fortune to represent my spaceflight consulting firm Astrowright as a sponsor of, as well as present research at, the Next-Generation Suborbital Researcher’s Conference this past February 26-29 in Palo Alto, CA. Specifically, after nearly a year of research and client-training-data-mining together with my friend/ballet-dancer/anthropologist/excercise-scientist/astronaut-trainer/partner-in-crime Ashley Boron, our presentations centered this year on our frontier fitness […]

Solar System’s “Planet X” lost in space?

Well, the intriguing possibilities affecting the likelihood of a mysterious companion in our Solar System continue to blossom. First, the actions of comets suggested that there may be a large “Planet X” named Tyche beyond the Oort Cloud. Then, we discovered planets around distant stars with highly elliptical, highly inclined orbits, giving us more potential […]

Future SwRI astronauts stomp on the accelerator

A quick note today on the further development of the worlds’ first commercial scientist-astronauts! The Southwest Research Institute‘s (SwRI) suborbital research program, after its stunning announcement last spring of the purchase of several research seats on upcoming suborbital spaceflights, is showing no signs of slowing. Recently, after their three commercial scientist-astronauts-in-training, (specifically termed payload specialists,) […]

T-minus 1 week: Aiming for NASTAR

I’m coming up on a positively Everest-ian milestone in my ongoing quest to become a commercial astronaut, and it’s been a long time coming: Astronaut training. Supported by my spaceflight consulting firm, Astrowright Spaceflight Consulting LLC, I’m heading out in a week to attend highly specialized training offered by the only FAA-certified civilian spaceflight training […]

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 […]

Dawn of the Corporate Scientist-Astronaut

For those of you who have known me a while, who have had to endure my many rants during the last decade-and-a-half about the future and the promise of corporate space exploration, I have four words: I told you so. It’s with an almost electric sense of expectation that I am pleased to report a […]