Daily Archives: January 21, 2021

The space-related sector has been bolstered by the enormous success of Elon Musks SpaceX, which has furthered space-based ETF investment.

The latest entrant to the field is disruptive technology portfolio manager and Tesla believer Ark Investment CEO Cathie Wood, who is now planning to launch a new space focused ETF.

Wood and her team plan to actively manage their space ETF. ARK intend to invest in domestic and foreign companies engaged in space exploration and innovation and to hold 40 to 55 stocks.

ARK already runs seven ETFs, focused on areas such as genomics, 3D printing, robotics, and financial technology, including theARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (CBOE: ARKQ).The firm oversees about $42 billion in ETF products, a sharp increase from less than $4 billion a year ago, Bloomberg estimates.

ARK recognizes that disruptive innovation causes rapid cost declines, cuts across sectors, and spawns further innovation. Through an iterative investment process, combining top-down and bottom-up research, ARK aims to identify innovation early, capitalize on the opportunities, and provide long-term value to investors, says the company.

Wood has had enormous success over the past year, becoming something of a superhero in the investment community with her flagship ARK Innovation ETF rocketing 150 percent last year alone.

This robust performance is fueling investor interest in space companies that could find their way into Woods new ARK Space Exploration ETF.

Musks SpaceX is currently privately-held, making it off limits for ETFs. Yet there are several other companies vying for spots in the new ARK ETF.

Space tourism pioneer Virgin Galactic hit a high of $33.40 last week, ramping up 21.4 percent from the previous day, and is currently still near $31 per share, while another pure space play, Stable Road Acquisition, surged nearly 30 percent to $22, all thanks to rumors of Woods interest.

Virgin Galactic includes notorious business leader Sir Richard Branson as one of its founders, and has a goal of making space travel possible for tourists with the aid of ultrafast hypersonic planes.

Other potential companies in the new ARK ETF could be defense contractors with exposure to launch systems or satellites such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.

One of the areas that is important to the space sector is the satellite market, which, according to ResearchandMarkets.com, is projected to grow from $2.8B in 2020 to $7.1B in 2025, driven by the need for tracking weather phenomena and broadband communications.

SpaceX is one of the leaders in the latter, with just under 900 satellites launched out of its planned initial constellation of 12,000 satellites.

Analysts are optimistic for the prospects of the new ARK Space ETF.

So in ARKX we have a hot sector and a hot fund manager coming together in one almighty interstellar collision. This could result in a meltdown everyone getting too excited all at once but we think not. We think ARKX is the first step towards pureplay space companies being truly mainstream investments that are well understood and widely articulated to capital markets, be they institutional or retail markets, reportsSeeking Alpha.

The site adds that ARKX could be a way to obtain an indirect exposure to any future SpaceX (SPACE) IPO at something like a sensible price. Arks single biggest holding across its many ETFs is Tesla Motors (TSLA) and the manager has used its open, published research platform to normalize TSLA as an innovation-driven company in investors eyes. As a result of which we would expect that the relationship between Musk and Ark is mutually beneficial we see no reason that cannot flow through into SpaceX.

For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.

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ARK Investment Plans To Augment Offerings With a Space ETF - ETF Trends

A new space policy highlights the fundamental role of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in securing the United States' safety and economic growth.

President Donald Trump on Friday (Jan. 15) issued Space Policy Directive-7 (SPD-7), which focuses on providing continuous access to U.S. space-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services provided by GPS, as well as improving the performance and cybersecurity of GPS.

"Recognizing that space-based positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems are increasingly critical to the American way of life, SPD-7 directs the pursuit of multiple and varied sources of PNT," Will Boyington, director of communications for the National Space Council, said in an emailed statement Friday. "SPD-7 directs an increase of cybersecurity for the Global Positioning System (GPS) and GPS-enabled devices, and acknowledges the potential for GPS to contribute to in-space applications."

Related: Presidential visions for space exploration: from Ike to Trump

The U.S. Space Force operates a constellation of GPS satellites that use radio navigation to provide positioning, navigation and timing information to military, commercial and civilian users worldwide. Space-based satellites are imperative for various technology and infrastructure, including the electrical power grid, communications, transportation, weather forecasting, and emergency response. SPD-7 aims to maintain American leadership in provisioning and responsible use of GPS, according to the directive.

This includes improving current GPS technologies, which supports the United State's ongoing effort to launch a new generation of GPS navigation spacecraft that beam down higher-power signals that are more resilient to jamming and boast additional broadcast frequencies to make the GPS network more compatible with other similar constellations. Four out of 10 planned advanced GPS III satellites have been launched to space to replace aging technology.

The new directive, which you can read here, also suggests that the increasing reliance on GPS for military, civil and commercial applications makes the system vulnerable. Therefore, SPD-7 emphasizes the need to prepare for potential signal loss and improve cybersecurity of GPS in the event signals are disrupted or manipulated.

In addition, the policy supports the use of foreign satellite-based PNT services to supplement GPS, and encourages "the development of alternative approaches to PNT services and security that can incorporate new technologies and services as they are developed, such as quantum sensing, relative navigation and private or publicly owned and operated alternative PNT services."

SPD-7 represents the first update to the U.S. policy on space-based PNT in more than 16 years. It also reinforces many of the points made in a February 2020 Executive Order, which emphasized the need for responsible use of PNT services.

President Trump also recently issued an Executive Order on Jan. 12 that promotes the development of small, modular nuclear reactors for national defense and space exploration. The order will "further revitalize the United States nuclear energy sector, reinvigorate America's space exploration program, and produce diverse energy options for national defense needs," according to a statement from the White House.

Nuclear reactors are used in a variety of applications on Earth, including generating power aboard submarines and aircraft carriers. Nuclear power is also essential to deep space exploration, and could be used to power future crewed missions on the moon and Mars. Therefore, the Executive Order suggests that developing small modular reactors will advance America's leadership and dominance across both terrestrial and space domains, according to the statement.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Trump signs Space Policy Directive-7 on improving GPS cybersecurity - Space.com

We wrote last month that the Space industry looks to be on an exciting trajectory for investment. It seems were not wrong. On January 14, ARK Invest filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a Space focussed exchange traded fund (ETF) under the ticker ARKX. ARK is operated by prominent fund manager Cathie Wood and at the cutting edge of disruptive innovation.

As soon as word of this filing hit, Space stocks were surging purely on speculation. None of the companies likely to be in the ETF have yet been confirmed, but investors are happy to take a punt and Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) proved one of the most popular.

Adobe Stock Space Image

Cathie Wood has shot to fame in the past twelve months and now loyal investors watch her moves carefully for hints of the next big thing and a potentially lucrative stock to buy. Meanwhile, fellow visionary Chamath Palihapitiya is a venture capitalist and owner of Social Capital. He too has shot to prominence over the past year and between them theyve got investors globally hanging off their every tweet.

Chamaths company Social Capital aims to advance humanity by solving the worlds hardest problems. This is a massive undertaking but a compelling way to invest and one that resonates with many young investors. ARK Invests funds follow a similar vein because they are investing in the companies most likely to disrupt the current way of life and change the future for the better. The two often go hand in hand, with ARK investing in Social Capitals company launches.

Social Capital uses a process known as blank check investing. It creates a publicly listed company, then merges with a real-world company in an alternative to an initial public offering (IPO). For example, Social Capital created a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called IPOA, which it then merged with Virgin Galactic and the ticker symbol became SPCE. Investors that bought into IPOA before the merger automatically had their shares converted to SPCE shares.

Chamath personally invested $100 Million in Virgin Galactic and is Chairman of its board. ARK Invest also invested in Virgin Galactic, so there is a shared vision between these two big players and its worth paying attention to.

SPACs were huge in 2020 and Chamath has become known as the King of SPACs. Through this time, hes made himself and many of his followers considerable riches. Recent headlines even question whether hes the modern-day Warren Buffett. It should be noted Chamath recently sold 38% (US$98m) of his Virgin Galactic stock to free up liquidity and his ability to invest in further acquisitions.

Space exploration and infrastructure projects are expected to be a booming revenue play for savvy investors in the coming years. This move by ARK invest reinforces this belief with clout and its likely to prove very popular with investors nervous about investing in individual Space stocks, which are prone to high volatility.

ETFs are generally considered less risky than buying individual stocks because the risk is spread among the basket of stocks held in the fund. In theory this means the reward is unlikely to be as sensational as buying shares in one runaway stock. Nevertheless, ARK funds have enjoyed record returns this year with its ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) posting a 152% return in 2020.

ETFs currently run by ARK include:

The SEC filing explains that the fund will invest primarily (at least 80% of its assets) in domestic and foreign equities involved in Space Exploration and innovation. That covers companies that are leading, enabling, or benefitting from technologically enabled products and/or services that occur beyond the surface of the Earth.

The principal investment strategy of ARKs Space ETF will cover four overarching categories:

Orbital Aerospace Companies which includes companies that launch, make, service, or operate satellites or launch vehicles.

Suborbital Aerospace Companies which includes drones, air taxis and electric aviation vehicles.

Enabling Technologies Companies create the technologies that add value to aerospace operations, including artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, materials and energy storage.

Aerospace Beneficiary Companies stand to benefit from aerospace activities, including agriculture, internet access, global positioning system (GPS), construction and imaging.

At the time of writing Iridium Communications Inc (NASDAQ: IRDM) is 3.33% of Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (BATS: ARKQ), while Aerovironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) is 2.45% and Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) is 2%.

Therefore, some of these would be likely contenders for the Space ETF.

Some of the Space related stocks that rose on news of the impending ETF, such as Virgin Galactic were obvious. But others were a bit of a surprise. The news boosted the shares of three SPACs, namely VG Acquisition (NASDAQ:VGAC), New Providence Acquisition (NASDAQ:NPA) and Stable Road Acquisition (NASDAQ:SRAC).

For Space buffs in the know, this wouldnt have been such a surprise. VG Acquisition, is owned by Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic. Its not yet formally identified its acquisition target, but speculation is rife. Hopeful investors believe it might be the vehicle used to bring Virgin Orbit or Virgin Hyperloop public. Either of these acquisitions could be a potential addition to the ARKX ETF.

New Providence has already identified AST SpaceMobile as its acquisition target. This company plans to build the worlds first mobile telephone network in space. Meanwhile, Stable Road plans to merge with Momentus, a Space infrastructure company.

In addition to these SPACs and Virgin Galactic, American defense contractor Aerovironment (AVAV) saw its share price appreciate 30% in response to the ETF news. This was the same day it announced an agreement to acquire Arcturus UAV, a leader in military unmanned aircraft systems, providing two reasons for investors to snap up Aerovironment stock.

The following also saw their share prices surge in response to the news:

Another Space company garnering constant speculation and interest is Elon Musks SpaceX. While SpaceX is still privately owned it cant be included in the fund, but if it were ever to go public then it would surely be a hot contender. Cathie Wood is a massive Tesla bull and her conviction on the stock, which goes back years, has paid off handsomely in 2020. Even in 2021 she remains confident that Tesla will continue to do well far into the future.

ARKs success is a double-edged sword. In December, ARK took in nearly $6.8 billion in new assets but many of the start-ups and small caps it invests in cant cope with more than a small investment. This means it must distribute its ETF holders cash into bigger companies that may not offer such sensational returns.

ARKs eclectic team of analysts have a wildly varied background from cancer research to artificial intelligence, gaming, healthcare and even sailing. This seems to help them remain focussed on the cutting edge of disruptive innovation. This may support them in keeping their finger on the pulse of money making opportunities far into an intergalactic future.

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Banking on Space Exploration with an ARK Invest Space ETF - Value The Markets

There was a big moment for space fans on Sunday, as the rocket company, Virgin Orbit, successfully put its first satellites into space.

Virgin Orbit is not like any other method of launching satellites to orbit, as it uses an out-of-service 747 jumbo jet.

This is important because it means it is physically possible to send up spacecraft from anywhere in the world, for a much lower cost than normal rocket launches.

The air-launched system has the flexibility to operate anywhere - in theory

At the moment, the only place that has a special licence to launch these satellite-carrying-planes is California in the United States.

But it is hoped many more places will be granted permission to launch soon.

The company have said they hope to launch from Cornwall this summer to coincide with the the G7 summit - an international economy meeting - taking place in June.

So how did a normal plane launch a satellite?

The specially modified jet, named Cosmic Girl, took off from California's Mojave desert on Sunday morning to fly out over the Pacific Ocean.

Just under an hour later, and cruising at 35,000ft (10,500m), the jet turned quickly to the right, dropping as it did and releasing the 21m-long rocket that had been clamped to its underside.

Within seconds this booster, called LauncherOne, had ignited its engine and was climbing to space.

British businessman Sir Richard Branson, who owns Virgin Orbit, presented the concept of the LauncherOne back in 2012.

A couple of hours later, the team behind Virgin Orbit, received confirmation that the satellites onboard the launcher, had made it successfully into space.

"A new gateway to space has just sprung open," said Virgin Orbit chief executive officer, Dan Hart.

Why is this a big step?

Sending things into space has always been massively expensive and, due to that mostly carried out by governments - but in recent years, there has been growing interest in getting smaller, lower-cost satellites into space.

There are currently thousands of larger, man-made satellites in space orbiting the Earth.

The LauncherOne successfully delivered shoebox sized satellites like this one, into the Earth's orbit

Some are used to monitor weather and climate on Earth, whilst others are used to explore the rest of the universe.

Many are also used for communications, such as mobile phones, the internet and TV.

But some of the satellites on the LauncherOne were the size of a shoebox and have mostly been developed by university research teams. They will be used as part of Nasa educational missions.

It's hoped that lower-cost spacecrafts can help smaller companies or organisations get their equipment into space, which could open up space research to many more people.

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Virgin rocket: Why this plane carrying a rocket launcher is a big deal for space exploration - CBBC Newsround

January 14, 2021

Arizona State University'sSchool of Earth and Space Exploration was recently awarded four Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) seed grants from The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The grants are from the natural sciences division of The College and represent initiatives of The Colleges JEDI framework, which seeks to support calls to action and appeals for social change and justice following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Seed grants from The College will support programs that prioritize justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. Credit: ASU/SESE Download Full Image

Specifically, the seed grant program was created to support novel and impactful contributions to promote equity and inclusion in The Colleges natural sciences division, which includes the School of Earth and Space Exploration, the School of Life Sciences, the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, the School of Molecular Sciences, the Department of Physics and the Department of Psychology.

Dean and Provost Pro Tempore Nancy Gonzales initiated a seed grant program in the natural sciences to support JEDI-related activities in the sciences, said Dean Patrick Kenney, of The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The efforts in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and in many other units, are working diligently to prioritize justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. We strive to meet this critical moment in our nations history to find ways to improve peoples lives with new and innovative solutions that will ultimately enhance greater scientific discovery and impact.

Proposals were accepted from students, staff, faculty and administrators with priorities given to projects developed in partnership with the groups they are intended to impact, that integrate evidence-based principles and include a plan for continued refinement and sustainability beyond the initial seed-funding period.

The four awarded proposals featured below are interdisciplinary and involve members of the School of Earth and Space Exploration in addition to representatives from other schools and departments within The College:

Associate Professor Christy Till of the School of Earth and Space Exploration, with Professor Sharon Hall of the School of Life Sciences and Clinical Assistant Professor Ara Austin of the School of Molecular Sciences were awarded $9,550 for their proposal Natural Sciences INCLUsion DEpartmental (INCLUDES) Training Program. They plan to use the funding to set and run yearly workplace climate and bystander intervention trainings for their academic units.

The INCLUDES Training Program utilizes bystander intervention and inclusive teaching and mentoring approaches to reduce the prevalence of harassment and other types of hostile behaviors, Till said. We will build an initial cohort of nine trainers to lead regular workplace climate and inclusion training for faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in our units, as well as annual train the trainers workshops to renew the program each year.

The initial cohort of trainers for the INCLUDES Training Program will be trained by the ADVANCEGeo program, which currently hosts inclusion workshops and trains trainers for the geoscience, biology, ecology, chemistry and engineering research environments.

Graduate student Aliya Hoff with Professor Monica Gaughan of the School of Human Evolution and Social Changeand Associate Professor Amanda Clarke of the School of Earth and Space Exploration were awarded $500 for their proposal Graduate student experiences at the School of Earth and Space Exploration.

This project aims to characterize current and former graduate students perceptions of departmental culture, their sense of belonging and interpersonal interactions at the school using qualitative data and semi-structured interviews.

We will use those findings to evaluate the efficacy of policies and initiatives currently in place to support graduate students and identify opportunities to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and justice in the school, Hoff said. We hope that our study design can serve as a model for other interdisciplinary units in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

School of Earth and Space Exploration graduate student Linnea McCann and Associate Professor Patrick Young received $4,500 for their proposal to create educational materials for Title 1 schools. Their Science in a Box Educator Kits are designed to bring more science activities into the classroom through free self-contained four-week science curricula for teachers and parents.

The next school year will provide new challenges for educators and students due to the recent coronavirus-related school closures, Hoff said. It is more important than ever to create opportunities for students in difficult situations to remain engaged with learning in creative and supportive ways. We hope that our kits will provide improved classroom experiences in the next year to offset some of these negative impacts.

The curricula will include: School of Earth and Space Exploration outreach tours (which can be offered virtually), educator kits with hands-on experiments and materials for classroom science activities, graduate student volunteers to aid teachers in demonstrating the activities and instructional videos of graduate students performing experiments.

Graduate students Edward Buie II, Justin Homand Jasmine Garani received $3,300 for their proposal to conduct a series of sexual harassment prevention and bystander workshops for schools and departments in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The project goals are to educate the graduate student community on sexual harassment and micro-aggressions and to ultimately erase these behaviors within the STEM community by giving graduate students the tools to be active bystanders who can safely intervene whenever such behaviors occur.

Workshops like this are needed to increase the dialogue surrounding these persistent issues within academia which hinder inclusivity and diversity in the community, Buie said. This peer-led workshop program aims to create a more positive and inclusive environment for all graduate students.

The School of Earth and Space Exploration has also set up its own JEDI seed grant program. It recently announced its inaugural winner, undergraduate student Bryanna Gutierrez-Coatney. Her award-winning proposal is an education initiative designed to build awareness of physics and earth and space topics among students in Arizonas Title 1 schools.

The schools seed grant is one of several initiatives from the School of Earth and Space Exploration JEDI Task Force, which empowers a just, equitable, diverse and inclusive environment by facilitating and promoting individual action, dialog, education, long-term planning and systemic change. It was formed in 2020, is chaired by Associate ProfessorChristy Till, the schools associate director for an inclusive community,and is composed of members from all parts of the schools community.

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School of Earth and Space Exploration awarded 4 JEDI seed grants for 2021 - ASU Now

January 14, 2021

Editor's note: This is the second of three parts of the story of ASU's geologists. Read the first here.

Ed Stumpis a professor emeritus in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU. He is a geologist, polar explorer, mountaineer and photographer specializing in the geology of the Transantarctic Mountains in Antarctica, the least known mountain range in the world.

Over the past 40 years, he has been principal investigator on research projects funded by the National Science Foundations Office of Polar Programs, covering more than 1,200 miles of the Transantarctic Mountains. He spent 13 Antarctic field seasons conducting geological research and twice served as chief scientist for large, remote, helicopter-supported camps. Stump was at ASU from 1976 to 2014, serving as department chair from 1991 to 1995. He co-authored Geology of Arizona.

Ed Stump is a professor emeritus in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. He is a geologist, polar explorer, mountaineer and photographer specializing in the geology of the Transantarctic Mountains in Antarctica, the least known mountain range in the world. Photo courtesy of Ed Stump

Science was the only thing I found interesting in high school, Stump said. And it was a chance to work out of doors, and it was a chance, I hoped, to travel. One of the early brochures from the American Geosciences Institute was a picture of somebody with a big pole on a flat boat in the swamps of Venezuela looking for oil. I thought, yeah, that's me.

Stump was hired to organize a course called Geology of Arizona. It was a one-year job. Department chair Troy Pw hired him sight unseen.

Pwwas very spit and polish, always wearing a tie and navy blazer. He had an intimidation thing where he would arch one of his eyebrows at you, Stump said.

When Stump arrived in Tempe in 1976, he had hair down to his waist. He walked into Pws office and introduced himself. Pws eyebrow went up and stayed up, spasming.

And I turned around and left the room, Stump said.

Geology of Arizona was the biggest course in the department. The university was pushing science for nonscience majors. It was held in a huge lecture hall, taught by different professors every few weeks.Pw taught the module on the Grand Canyon, which ended with a weekend field trip. Busloads of students went up, saw the park, camped out, hiked down to Indian Garden or Plateau Point, then came home by midnight on Sunday. The trip was the centerpiece of the course.

Pwwas impressed when he saw how Stump handled the trips logistics and herding students.

We became close after that, and by the second semester, he actually started to call me Ed instead of Dr. Stump, he said.

Stump saw opportunity at ASU They were just on the cusp of becoming a research department. He had won a grant to study in Antarctica, which impressed the university.

After me, there was never a junior faculty member that made it if he didn't have a grant, but I became the standard, so to speak, for anybody new that was coming in in terms of establishing a funded research program, he said.

Geologists generally dont get funded for field work as their primary research effort any more. Stump admits he was an anachronism when he started.

And as I always said, geologists just need to see their rocks. We don't work well in the dark.

Initially, the geochemists werent so welcome in the geology department.

Pw was a classic geomorphologist who really didn't value the molecular approach to anything, physical chemist Alexandra Navrotsky said. And he was a classical conservative in his social beliefs as well. So that led to obvious tensions with people that were doing geochemistry and with lots of younger faculty.

Those clashes would come back to haunt Pw.

He was really, really disliked by a faction of the department that he called the chemists, which were really the geochemists, but he wouldn't even call them geochemists, Stump said.

After Stump was hired in 1976, the dean put up new guidelines for the tenure of a chairman. After two years they had to get 50% of the department in a vote of confidence. After four years, maybe two-thirds.Pw had been chair 11 years. He needed to get 75% of the department.

And he knew he wasn't going to get that, Stump said. So, he resigned. He never was kicked out.

David Krinsley, an expert on desert varnish and mineral decay, was hired as department chair in 1977.

When I first came, I think it's fair to say that geology was a very classical department and it was through the hires largely Krinsley did actually that it spread out, Navrotsky said.

Dave was a real rough operator, and he wanted us to get on the national fast track, Professor Emeritus Paul Knauthsaid. He didnt want the best geology department in Maricopa County. He wanted the best geology department in the country.

Krinsley hired Knauth, a geologist and geochemist, in 1979. Knauths landmark discovery in his career was proving life existed on land during the Precambrian period.

At the time, the rift with the chemistry department had not been healed. Krinsley wanted to warm up the relationship because the geochemists like Navrotsky and Holloway were making a national name for themselves.

Krinsley also brought in astronomer Mike Malin and Robert Dietz, a founder of plate tectonics and one of the first people to realize Meteor Crater had in fact been formed by a meteor.

From those hires I felt we could be No. 1 in the nation in geology, and I felt our field camp could be No. 1 in the nation in geology, Knauth said. I think it was, for a short period.

Knauth got the field program going and led the field camp for 16 years. He also led 32 geology raft trips and 70 student field trips to the Grand Canyon.

Back in camp, his students would work on describing and interpreting the stories in each layer of rock. What was it? What did it look like the day that unit was made and deposited? What caused it?

(Those nights), sitting around the campfire in Mather Campground, which is my second home, was the most satisfying thing to me in teaching, Knauth said. Those people were on a high. They had confidence. They felt like they were geologists. Not only that, they felt they owned the Grand Canyon because they had not just stood at the rim and looked, theyd gone down there and interacted with it in the deepest way possible. You let the canyon do that to them. I just got out of the way.

Moore hired Ron Greeley for the geology department and the Center for Meteorite Studies in 1977.

I met him at the NASA Ames Research Center and thought of him when I had an open position, Moore said.

Moore liked the fact that Greeley wasnt just a meteorite guy he studied all aspects of space. Greeleys way of looking at other planets was to take a hard look at this one. He would rent an airplane or a helicopter to take aerial pictures. It helped to define and understand what geologic features produced by different processes look like on Earth. And he helped train the early astronauts who tended to be jet jockeys, not scientists how to describe geologic features as more than big rocks and little rocks.

Greeley raised eyebrows in other ways as well.

(Greeley) came in with a big bank account, Stump said. I don't know whether he had a million dollars yet in grants, but, you know, it was way more than anybody else in the department. And we looked at that and said, NASA seems to be the place rather than NSF, if we want to go big time.

Krinsley made a play, bypassing the dean and going straight to the provost with a proposal that ASU geology was going to go over the top if he could get four positions.

We did four hires in one spring, Stump said. Nobody had dinner at home that semester. We were just out to supper, always with candidates. So there'd be a geophysicist and a geochemist and maybe an environmental geologist this year. And we'd look at all of them and see who the best person was in the group. So we did a whole series of hires that were what we thought were the best person each time.

In 1983, the dean decided he wanted a new department chair, and he asked Knauth to take over the job.

I was a guy who talked to the chemists and the geologists, Knauth said. I liked them both.

During Knauths tenure as department chair, there was a universitywide competition for a new building.

We got it, so we were finally relieved of our space problems, he said.

Jim Tyburczy came to ASU in 1985. He studied the physical and chemical behavior of materials under high pressure.

It was a good environment for doing things, Tyburczy said. People wanted you to try things.

Jim Tyburczy

Specialization in a branch of a field at a university often stems from one person coming in and having success in that field, and then the department extending that success in tangential directions.

Navrotsky and Holloway attracted Tyburczy. (That type of work is now being carried out by Christy Till and Dan Shim.)

ASU is known as a place where this kind of high-pressure geoscience materials science research goes on, Tyburczy said. When someone says high-pressure research, there are half a dozen places around the country whose names come to mind. ASUs is one of them.

Through the meteorites collection, the research program had been founded in space, and space, under Greeley and Moore, was beginning to raise its profile at the university.

David Williams is a research professor and director of the Ronald Greeley Center for Planetary Studies at ASU, the NASA regional planetary information facility.

He arrived in Tempe in the summer of 1989 for grad school. A lifelong Star Trek fan, he wanted to become a planetary scientist. Williams had earned undergraduate degrees in astronomy and astrophysics with minors in mathematics and geology at Indiana University. He contacted Greeley and was accepted.

Since I wasn't a full geology major I only had a minor in the field it was recommended that I start off and take geology field camp, Williams said. So the first thing I did when I arrived here was to take the geology departments field camp up at Camp Tontozona. Professor Paul Knauth was the instructor. I learned a lot from him. I lacked some of the coursework one would normally have when one takes a field geology class. But I still managed to get a B. And then the following fall semester, fall of '89, I took advanced field geology with Paul in a different part of Arizona. And then later in my time at ASU in grad school, I took advanced field camp again with Professor Steve Reynolds and going to different places in the state. So I feel really grateful as a planetary geologist to have had all of that field experience when I was in grad school.

David Williams

Flash forward to now. Williams has probably had more experience than the crew of the Enterprise. He has worked on a Venus mission, a lunar mission, an outer-planets mission, a Mars mission, an asteroid mission and a dwarf planet mission.

I think I'm the only (School of Earth and Space Exploration) faculty member who's worked on that greater diversity of planetary bodies, he said.

Does all that field experience help in his work?

Absolutely, Williams said. If you're going to understand geology on other planets, just limited by looking at spacecraft photos, it really helps to have had the experience of understanding terrestrial geology, where you can actually go out into the field. You can walk out the contacts, you can examine the rocks at hand, you can see their relationships up close and personal. So, yeah, having an outdoor field camp class is a very important experience, I think, for any geologists, whether it be a terrestrial geologist or one who's going to go study planetary geology.

Back in Grand Canyon explorer John Wesley Powells day, there was a lot of interest in brain size. Scientists studied the brains of great men, hoping to discover the secrets of their brilliance. Powells brain was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. by an anthropologist.

Pwdied in 1999.

Pw, being enamored of Powell and interested in intelligence and brain size, had his brain also put into the Smithsonian, next to or near Powells, said Tyburczy. The hope was that his brain would be useful for furthering scientific study.

His brain was sent to the Smithsonian, where it was put next to Powell's. His family asks about it from time to time, according to a 2006 Washington Post story on famous body parts at the museum.

Stump became department chair from 1991 to 1995, after Greeley held the post from 19881991. In January 1993, a U.S. State Department rep in Bogota called. A volcano had erupted with a group of scientists inside the caldera, including an ASU geologist.

That first person from the State Department said, Listen, you ought to try to get an air ambulance down here, as quick as you can, Stump said.

On Jan. 14, ASU volcanologist Stanley Williams led a party of 16 people 13 scientists and engineers, including himself, and three tourists to the crater at the summit of the 9,000-foot volcano Galeras. It was the highlight of a U.N.-sponsored conference. Galeras was the most active volcano in Colombia and had erupted almost 30 times in 500 years, most recently the year before. But they looked over the seismological and gas emissions evidence and decided it was quiet.

Stanley Williams

At about 1:40 p.m., Williams asked the group to begin wrapping up for departure. Rocks began to tumble off the wall of the crater, first singly, then in a cascade. Williams shouted: "Hurry up! Get out!"

It was too late.

The volcano shook with a roar like thunder and the earth opened up. Gas that had been building up for months was released. Tons of rocks and ash poured into the air. White hot rocks, some as big as TV sets, rained down.

Nine members of the party were killed.

A rock the size of an orange smashed into Williams head, sending skull fragments deep into his brain. His nose, jaw and both his legs were broken. And he was on fire. He was saved in a rescue led by two brave female colleagues and by a young Colombian neurosurgeon, who removed a piece of his brain the size of a peach pit.

Stump chartered an air ambulance out of Florida. The plane flew to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and picked up Williams wife.

I saw him and Linda as they were gurneying him into the Barrow Institute downtown for brain surgery, Stump said. There was an awful lot going on, lots of press. It was a very dramatic moment.

Stanley Williams never really came back from Galeras.

"I'm different," he said in an interview with the Guardian later on. "That guy died. I have to accept that." Post-eruption he was partially deaf, walked with some difficulty on extensively reconstructed legs, suffered from depression and unreasonable anger, and mixed up words. At one point he was taking 20 pills a day.

In 1995, he went back to Galeras.

I was in and out in two hours, he said in the Guardian interview. I came down with pneumonia. Basically it was my not being strong enough to handle that effort. I shouldn't have done it. It wasn't an unbelievable, facing God kind of thing. I'm just not that sensitive, I guess. I wanted to go back there; I wanted to go back and stand on that spot, and think about Igor smiling, Geoff waving at me, me just explaining to the tourists what was going on. And a minute later everyone died. I don't have any sense of guilt for the deaths, but I miss them. It's a very sad thing."

Williams retired two years ago and is now a professor emeritus.

Top image byWikiImagesfromPixabay.

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Part 3: The School of Earth and Space Exploration is born - Arizona State University

What happened

There's a new space-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF) coming from one of the hottest names in investing, and that has led to a lot of investor speculation about what stocks are likely to be included.

That speculation has a number of stocks rocketing higher on Tuesday, with shares of AeroVironment (NASDAQ:AVAV), Stable Road Acquisition (NASDAQ:SRAC), and New Providence Acquisition (NASDAQ:NPA) all up more than 10% apiece.

Last week space stocks jumped higher after Cathie Wood's Ark Invest announced plans to launch an ETF focused on space. Few investment firms can match the ARK Innovation (NYSEMKT:ARKK) fund's 170% return in 2020, and investors are keenly focused on what Ark plans to do next.

Ark Invest filed to operate "Space Exploration ETF" under the ticker ARKX. Space is a high-risk, high-reward area where when companies fail they can fail spectacularly, so there is some logic to investing in a basket of names in an ETF instead of putting all your money in one stock. The issue is there are very few publicly traded companies focused solely on space, meaning Ark might have to get creative to fill out the ETF.

Image source: Getty Images.

AeroVironment would be a creative choice. The company is primarily a dronemaker, but has dabbled in space, including building a helicopter drone for NASA that if all goes well will fly over Mars this year. AeroVironment primarily builds drones for the Pentagon. But given that most companies involved in space are also defense contractors, AeroVironment fits the bill for the ETF as well or better than many likely participants.

Stable Road and New Providence have more direct connections to space. Both are special purpose acquisition companies, orSPACs, that are set to merge with space-focused privately held companies. Stable Road is in the process of finalizing a deal that would bring Momentus public. Think of Momentus as a company building a space tow truck: Its spacecraft will have the ability to move satellites and other objects into new orbits.

New Providence, meanwhile, has a deal in place to merge with AST & Science, a company attempting to deliver broadband-speed internet to smartphones via satellites.

It's a dangerous moment for investors in these stocks. As said above, given the risks and uncertainty an ETF strategy for space makes a lot of sense. But the attention around Ark's plans is causing a number of stocks to shoot higher.

Of these three, AeroVironment is by far the best stand-alone investment. The company is still a relatively small player in the drone business, but it has found success as a Pentagon contractor. Space revenue, and the ETF talk, is icing on the cake.

As for the other two, even assuming the SPAC mergers close as planned, Momentus and AST are two early-stage companies with a lot to prove, and a lot that can go wrong. As short-term trading instruments the stocks could well ride the wave of excitement around space, but for long-term investors, an ETF, and not individual ownership, is the best way for now to gain exposure to these companies.

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Why Shares of AeroVironment and Two Space SPACs Are Soaring Today - The Motley Fool