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Dr. Phil Metzger
@DrPhiltill
, 3 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Sadly, academic space science is a borderline pyramid scheme. To be sustainable, each professor should graduate only ONE student in her/his lifetime -- unless there are jobs outside academia. Happily, outside jobs are becoming real as space activity becomes commercially-viable./1
2/ Here's a short paper on why I think space jobs will explode in the coming years, so Space Science Academia won't be a pyramid scheme any more. repository.hou.usra.edu/bitstream/hand…. cc:@JeniMillard @LauraForczyk
3/3 Corrected link to the paper: adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-da… @JeniMillard
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Dr. Phil Metzger
@DrPhiltill
Since I was in grad school there’s been a LOT of progress figuring out how the Moon formed. Some important objections had been raised against the giant impact hypothesis, but now they have been largely answered.
2/ The “Synestia” theory developed by @SarahTStewart & co-workers has successfully answered the main objection against the Giant Impact Hypothesis. ucdavis.edu/news/how-moon-…
3/ When collisions are inelastic (absorbing energy), the two colliders tend to stick together instead of bouncing apart. If they are giant planets, gravity then takes over so they merge into one planet. So how did we get a separate Moon??? (image credit Wikimedia)
Read 46 tweets
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Dr. Phil Metzger
@DrPhiltill
Agreed. However, I'm currently on two funded projects working on tech for this, and all indications say lunar water is easily retractable. There's a concern the water ice in the cold lunar craters might be as hard as granite. However.../1
2/...rocks don't survive long on the Moon. The constant micrometeoroid bombardent chips them into regolith. That will be exactly the same when the "rocks" are made of frozen water.
3/ So the ice should already be in easily excavated form. This agrees with radar observations of the Moon that show a total absence of solid ice surfaces (lenses of ice), and yet neutron scattering and other data show the ice is there. Yes it is there, but it is pre-crushed!
Read 4 tweets
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Dr. Phil Metzger
@DrPhiltill
My father's certificate of participation in the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first humans on the Moon. He worked on the ground launch systems and took me to the Open House days at @NASAKennedy. Because of his influence, I grew up assuming one day I would work on space, too.
2/ My sister and I at one of the Family Open House days at @NASAKennedy during the Apollo era. We are the two little ones in the center of the rocket engines.
3/ My mother and I in our driveway in 1968 in Titusville, Florida. Those cars were what our neighbors (the Petricks and the Tysdales) drove to @NASAKennedy to work on the Apollo program with my dad. It was a bedroom community of the space program.
Read 3 tweets

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1/ The following summarizes some of the darker realizations about academia that I wish I had earlier in my career. So I'm passing them along here for the benefit of early career folks. Longer version here: psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mo…
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As part of the #BlackpoolPIER #space #science in schools project, @rwwalsh and I have been asking Y6 children what sort of people scientists are. Was surprised at how many children said #scientists were 'good', 'kind' and 'helpful'. Going to post a few examples below (thread)
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