Page Text: Meet Phil Metzger…
Dr. Phil Metzger
Dr. Philip Metzger is a planetary physicist with the Planetary Science faculty at the University of Central Florida, developing what he calls “Economic Planetary Science” to help humanity’s expansion beyond Earth. He has 30 years’ experience at NASA first as an engineer and then as a physicist, developing and operating spaceflight technologies. He co-founded the NASA KSC Swamp Works, a research and development lab modeled after the Skunkworks and implementing innovation practices borrowed from Silicon Valley. The Swamp Works focuses on technologies for planetary surfaces including mining, manufacturing, and construction using space resources.
While at NASA, Phil led the Agency’s work in rocket blast effects for human-class missions. He participated in architecture studies for the Lunar Architecture Team, the Mars Architecture Team and the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, and he helped develop NASA’s technology roadmap for planetary surface technologies . He convinced NASA to develop guidelines for protecting the historic sites on the Moon, and he wrote a large portion of that work. He also led projects to develop lunar ice extraction, regolith conveyance, lunar and martian landing pads, and lunar energy storage. He co-founded NASA’s biannual Workshop on Granular Materials in Lunar and Martian Exploration and is a founding member of the ASCE Technical Committee for Regolith Operations, Mobility and Robotics. He has flown 450 parabolas of zero-, lunar-, and Martian gravity in NASA’s reduced gravity aircraft, was a flight crew member for calibrating Space Shuttle Runways, served on the Space Shuttle launch team and the Space Station Hardware Integration Office, and participated in field tests of Vertical Takeoff/Vertical Landing rockets and space resource extraction robotics.