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I think that it is in the Earth's long-term interest to explore it's surrounding environment. Of course, it's expensive - but what if the kings and queens of France and Spain had never financed Amerigo Vespucci, Christopher Columbus, Lewis and Clark, and the rest of the explorers who discovered unknown territory? The world would indeed be different from today - for better or worse. But it is our nature to explore and question. This is why I think that space exploration is an important part of our future - who knows what vast resources and adventures await the human race?

I had the great pleasure to help humankind to explore space - I was on the software development team for several interplanetary exploration spacecraft. I worked on two projects: Mars Sureyor '98 and Stardust.

The Mars Surveyor program is a long-term investigation of Mars; every two years a new spacecraft will be sent to explore and unlock Mars' history, each mission expanding our knowledge and using new and innovative technologies. The '98 mission consists of two spacecraft - the Mars Climate Orbiter, and the Mars Polar Lander. The Stardust spacecraft is slightly different; instead of exploring another planet, it will rendezvous with a comet and collect samples, sending them back to earth a long 7 years from now. Click on the mission names above to link to pages with more detailed information on these missions.

For a cyber-tour of our solar system, go visit The Nine Planets

For a comprehensive history of manned and unmanned space exploration to date, visit Encyclopedia Astronautica, a real gold mine of space flight info.

(Picture courtesy of NASA)

My interest in space and the universe stems from as far back as I can remember - but probably first congealed in high school where we had a planetarium and I took my first Astronomy course. I went on to get a Bachelor's and Master's in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. My Master's Thesis was a computer simulation and parametric study of comets and meteors entering Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic velocities, much like Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 encountered Jupiter. The work was mentioned in the September 1996 issue of Discover magazine, in an article about the Tunguska Event of 1908. In this event hundreds of square miles of remote forest in Russia were devastated by an explosion that is most commonly attributed to a comet or meteor. In one theory, the extinction of the dinosaurs is attributed to a meteor/asteroid impacting with Earth. A more modern and accessable example of an impact is Meteor Crater, AZ. I have seen this in person, and it is spectacular!!

I have been particularly pleased to see this subject matter hit Hollywood recently, with the release of the movies Armageddon and Deep Impact. Both of these movies had their good points and bad, though I thought that Deep Impact was the more scientifically credible of the two movies. Either way, they are a good watch.

For more information, go see NASA's Asteroid and Comet Impact page.

Now, a few words about one of the greatest inspirations in my life, Carl Sagan. Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated with astronomy and the universe around us, and never was it more evident than when I saw Dr. Sagan's television series, Cosmos. It was then that I knew what I wanted to do with my life - help the human race explore the universe that we are a part of. Dr. Sagan has left us, but his inspiration remains.

You can help in the search for extraterrestrial intellegence with SETI@home. This is a computer program that downloads radio observatory data from SETI and processes it with your CPU via a screen saver. It's pretty neat! You can find out more by clicking on the graphic below: