About Me

My name is Nicholas Castle, but I often go by Nick. I’m a PhD geologist who has studied rocks in the Appalachians, the Cascades, the Canadian Rockies, the Gulf Coast, on Mars, and in the Asteroid Belt. I’m an experimentalist, an occasional field geologist, and a space mission enthusiast. My passion is learning about geology in new and unfamiliar settings, and in sharing what I’ve learned with the people around me. I have experience as a science communicator in a variety of settings, including now as a staff journalist with Universe Today as part of the Weekly Space Hangout team. At my present job, with the Planetary Science Institute, I work with NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover as one of the mission controllers. I also teach a course called “How to Live on Mars (and not die)” which you can find through Eventbrite. The rest of the time I write grant proposals and do research in planetary science.

My goal here is to raise interest in science by exploring the geology, ecology, and environmental science in the US National Parks. My wife and I, along with our infant daughter, hope to visit all 63 National Parks, along with a number of the National Monuments and other national park sites as we wander about for the next year or so. We’ll be camping, photographing, blogging, recording videos, and generally exploring everywhere we go, and in all kinds of weather. It is my hope that during the long isolation that this pandemic has brought that I can help inspire others and bring a little bit of the great outdoors right into your home and on to your computer screen. If you’d like to know more about this trip and what we’re doing, check out the National Parks section on this site. You can follow our trip here, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and you can support our efforts through Patreon.