Hello Everyone, Sorry I have been away so long. I have been working on a new project called HI-SEAS: Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. I will be spending 4 months living in a Mars simulated environment in Hawaii. The study takes place from April – August, 2013. I am the education outreach officer for [...]

This year I am on sabbatical from my work. Instead of teaching I will be doing two internships. The first internship starts next week and is at FEMA’s Emergency Management Institution. I will spend 8 weeks there taking classes and working on the science of disasters. Check out the website for EMI: http://training.fema.gov/EMI/ When I [...]

I am the aerospace education officer for my Civil Air Patrol squadron and I was recently (August 6, 2012) presented with the Air Force Association’s Frank Luke (Luke AFB) Chapter Teacher of the Year Award. It was the first time they have given it to a non k-12 teacher. What a terrific honor. The certificate [...]

After I finished the Camino de Santiago I took the train to Porto and then on to Lisbon. I loved Portugal. I actually don’t have time to do a cool write-up for Portugal because of my travel. So I’m posting pictures only and the three things I want you to know about Portugal are: 1. [...]

Here are the pages for my Camino de Santiago trip. It is a 500 miles walk (pilgrimage) across northern Spain. I started my journey on June 25, 2012 from Pamplona, Spain. I estimated 30 days to reach Santiago de la Compostella. To read a blog page, just click on the day. Day 1: Shall we [...]

Hello Mom, family, and friends. I flew to Barcelona for the first time this past week all by myself. I mean literally all by myself! I was lucky and had no one sitting in the seat next to me and it was a full flight. What are the chances of that. I was clearly off [...]

Hello everyone, I would like to share with you my latest adventure. I have been selected to participated in a Mars Analog Food Study. The purpose of this study is to understand what foods would work best for a mission to Mars. The crew consists of 9 individuals, six of which will be chosen to [...]

I had a terrific time presenting at the Phoenix Comicon. I gave two panels. The first was on my 2009 NASA astronaut experience. At first I didn’t think people would be interested but my comicon contact assured me that the Sci-fi crowd cared equally about both the fictional and real world of space exploration. My [...]

After living in Arizona for over a decade I decided to finally visit the historic town of Bisbee and do a wine tour of Southern Az. Me and some friends made the 3.5 hour drive south. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

I am a geologist who has lived in Phoenix, Arizona since 1994 and I have never been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon National Park. Ya, I know what you are thinking. How is this possible?? Well, I’m finally going to make up for all my years of ignoring the bottom by not only [...]