John E. Brandenburg is a plasma physicist at Orbital Technologies in Madison Wisconsin, working on space plasma technologies and space propulsion. He also performed research on the MET(Microwave Electro-Thermal) plasma thruster for space propulsion,  Rocket Plume-Regolith Interactions on the Moon and Mars, Vortex theory of Rocket engine design,   and Kaluza-Klein theory of Field Unification for purposes of space propulsion.  He also performed an architecture study for a Human Mars Mission using solar electric propulsion.  Before coming to ORBITEC  he was performing research on air plasmas and plasma propulsion at Florida Space Institute. He is a pioneer in creating electrodeless atmospheric pressure plasmas in air using microwaves. Before this he was at The Aerospace Corporation, where one of his duties was as principle investigator of the MET propulsion project. Before coming to Aerospace corporation Dr. Brandenburg was a researcher at Research Support Instruments (RSI) where he specialized in making controlled laboratory plasmas for uses ranging from air plasmas for surface sterilization , Fusion research and  the MET thruster. He also worked as an independent consultant on Space Missile Defense, Directed Energy Weapons, and space rocket plume phenomenology, and also at Mission Research Corporation and Sandia National Laboratories on plasmas for controlled fusion and similar topics.

Doctor Brandenburg was born in Rouchester Minnesota but grew up in Medford Oregon. He obtained a BA in Physics from Southern Oregon University in Ashland Oregon, home of the Shakespearean Festival. He obtained his MS in Applied Science at University of California at Davis and his PhD in Theoretical Plasma Physics at the UC Davis extension campus at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore California.  The Title of his Thesis was “A Theoretical Model of a Reversed Field Ion Layer Made of Monoenergetic Ions” and dealt with the magnetic confinement of plasmas for controlled nuclear fusion.  Inspired by the Apollo missions to choose a career in Physics he has always been an avid fan of space exploration and science fiction. He is the author the “Dead Mars, Dying Earth”(1999) with Monica Rix Paxson , ( see Amazon.com) which dealt with the problems of energy and global warming from a comparative planetary science ( Earth-Mars) perspective and has been published the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Japan. It was the winner of the Silver Medal in the Ben Franklin awards for books on science and environment. He has published two science fiction novels: “Asteroid 20-2012 Sepulveda” and its sequel  “Morningstar Pass, The Collapse of the UFO Coverup” ( see Amazon.com for both) under the pen name “Victor Norgarde” these deal with the problems of living in the real cosmos and initial contact between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence.

His latest scientific book: “Life and Death on Mars: The New Mars Synthesis” is in press and deals with the evidence that a large asteroid impact on Mars late in its geologic history may have collapsed a persistent greenhouse regime on that planet,  and that such a climatic collapse may have triggered a mass extinction of life there.

Dr. Brandenburg has dedicated his career to problems of space, energy and national defense.