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The Astronaut Hopeful's Manifesto

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I am an astronaut hopeful – one of thousands of people who somehow never outgrew our childhood dream of going to space. Anyone can hope to be an astronaut, but to be an “astronaut hopeful” one must make a commitment to the goal and proactively work towards becoming an astronaut. The road is long and the outcome is uncertain, but it is in trying to achieve this lofty ambition that we learn to become our best selves. Astronauts train to be some of the most focused, resourceful, healthy and dependable people on the planet. Striving to be more like them can help any person to be more effective in life’s pursuits. Making the decision to do everything one can to actually become an astronaut means learning from astronaut role models and making incremental decisions throughout your life that get you closer to your dream. This week NASA began accepting applications to recruit another class of astronaut candidates (ASCAN’s). More than 6,300 people applied during the last opportunity, from ...
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NASA selection begins!

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NASA opened the 2015-16 astronaut selection opportunity on USAJOBS . Applications are due February 18, and details are on astronauts.nasa.gov . Good luck to all who apply! I wrote an article called " The Astronaut Hopeful's Manifesto: An Applicant's Guide " on Forbes with some advice to applicants. Check it out!
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Posts backlog to the future

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Dear ‘Astronaut for Hire’ blog readers: Some of you may have noticed that I have not published a new post in quite some time. My current priorities prevent me from blogging as much as I would like, but I assure you I am still alive and well. When I am able, I will complete several posts from the past year. Here’s a sneak peak at the topics: Returning to Earth after life at sea aboard the Falkor (June 2014) NASA Exploration Science Forum (July 2014) Spartan Trifecta (Sprint, Super, Beast) races (August 2014) NOLS training expedition with HI-SEAS and the 2013 NASA ASCAN class (September 2014) HI-SEAS crewmember geology training (October 2014) Orbital Sciences and Virgin Galactic crashes (November 2014) Next Giant Leap Conference (November 2014) AGU Conference (December 2014) ISU vs. UND showdown revisited - guest post (January 2015) Balancing family, work, school, and life (March 2015) HAARP Earthquake and Tsunami teaching (April 2015) InSight Science Team Meeting (May 2...
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Marine Mapping Midpoint and Venus

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Halfway through the R/V Falkor expedition to map the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, we have traveled nearly 4000 km and mapped many areas, including the Rogatien Ridge and the Gardner Pinnacles . Along the way, we have to take turns keeping watch for whales and diverting the ship away from them if necessary in order to maintain a safe distance due to the ship's active sonar. My turn taking watch is usually the hour before and after dinner out on the ship's upper deck , which means I get to witness many spectacular sunsets and moonrises. My colleagues on the sunrise whale watches have remarked at how bright Venus can be. This got me thinking about just how similar mapping the seafloor is to mapping the surface of Venus. Can you tell which of the two pictures below is from Earth's seafloor and which is from Venus? Both are backscatter images. One is produced by radar and the other by sonar, but the principle is the same. You send a pulse of ener...
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Location: Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
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The magnetic personalities of seamounts

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The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument encompasses a vast area larger than all U.S. national parks combined. As I mentioned last time , We came here on the R/V Falkor to map the seafloor around the islands, atolls, reefs, and seamounts that comprise the Northwestern Hawaiian Island chain within the monument. Ultimately, we want to gain a better understanding of the geological processes that helped shape this part of the world. As the ship cruises along at around 10 knots, we operate three different data collection systems. First, we have a multibeam sonar that pings the seafloor with sound to give us a picture of what the ocean bottom looks like. Then, we have a gravimeter , which detects minute gravity variations that tell us what is beneath the seafloor surface. Finally, our magnetometer measures the Earth’s magnetic field along our path and provides information on the relative ages of seafloor features. On this cruise, we are using a Geometrics G-882 magnetometer p...
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Falkor's Neverending Story

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What if we could explore far off corners of the world just like the famous luck dragon Falkor in the classic book and movie The Neverending Story ? The Schmidt Ocean Institute launched the R/V Falkor to do just that. Funded by Google's deep pockets, this private research ship is charged with exploring uncharted depths of the sea and offers scientists competitive opportunities to conduct their own research expeditions along the way. Since we know more about the surface of the Moon and Mars than we do our own ocean , this is a very timely mission. All data collected on the Falkor is made freely available to the public in order to best advance knowledge about the regions it explores. I have had the good fortune to take part in two cruises aboard the Falkor. Last month, I participated in a short 3-day training cruise to the Maui Nui area, and now I am one week into a 36-day cruise to map the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) (aka: Northwestern Hawaii...
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Location: Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
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Gaining InSight on Mars

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I just returned from California where I participated in a NASA InSight Science Team meeting. InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is NASA’s first dedicated geophysical mission to Mars. Keep reading to learn more! A key goal of planetary science is to understand the formation and evolution of the planets, which means we need to know what they are made of. Geology, geochemistry, geodesy, and geophysics are tools that we can use to get at questions associated with the structure and composition of planetary interiors. Previous and current Mars missions have utilized all of these approaches except geophysics, which is the only technique that can give direct measurements about what is beneath the surface. InSight will help us determine the size, composition, and state of the crust, mantle, and core while also measuring the thermal state of the interior and level of seismic activity on Mars. Watch the video below to learn more abou...
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