Greetings everyone. Thanks for stopping by Parabolic Arc. We appreciate having you here. And we hope you find the site illuminating.
You’re probably wondering who’s writing this blog, so here’s a bit of information about me…
My Bio
My name is Douglas Messier. I live and work in the Silicon Valley, where I am employed as a relevance analyst by a major Internet company (that is no way related to this blog, BTW). What is my job, precisely? Well, in its simplest form, I spend a lot of time looking at web sites to determine what is relevant to our customers. Which has been excellent training for what I’m doing here.
I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism and many years of experience as a full-time and free-lance writer. I’ve written everything from news stories and technical documentation to movie and television spec scripts. My first book, Carl: The Life of W. Carl Condie, is currently at the printer. It is the story of a Salt Lake City man who lived from 1909-2003, a life that included a Mormon mission to Germany and Switzerland from 1931-33. This is a private work commissioned by one of Carl’s grandsons.
I have studied science, technology and space policy at The George Washington University and completed an International Space University’s summer session. I am a co-owner of SpaceJobs.com and helped to found the Earth and Space Foundation, a non-profit charity that funds scientific research in a number of areas.
What This Blog Covers
This blog is focused on space commercialization and tourism but not exclusively so. It also covers human spaceflight activities, space prizes, robotic exploration, and other major developments in the space arena. The focus is international, although you will see a lot of coverage of activities in the United States and Europe, where much of the activity occurs.
My philosophy is to provide readers with as much news, analysis and opinions from as many different sources as possible. Journalism and democracy are best served by a cacophony of news, views and perspectives. Left, right, center: they are all welcome here.
I will, from time to time, express views on matters about which I feel very strongly. But, my philosophy is to treat you, my readers, as adults who are entitled to your views and more than capable of making up your own minds.
Please feel free to comment on blog postings. My only request is that you keep the discussion civil, focused on points of view and ideas but not on personalities. The great American General Dwight David Eisenhower lived by the philosophy of never questioning a man’s motives. His judgment, yes, but not his motives. It’s a good philosophy to live by.
With space tourism growing and NASA aiming for the moon, it’s an exciting time to be covering space. I hope this blog will enable you to stay abreast of all the interesting developments that are occurring in the field.
That’s about it. I hope you enjoy your visit to Parabolic Arc. Please let me know what we can do to improve the site.
-Doug