wfn.org | Adventist Leads NASA Expedition to North Pole

["Christian B. Schäffler" <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

April 13,1999
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
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APD@stanet.ch
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Adventist Leads NASA Expedition to North Pole

Spencerville, Maryland, USA - Michael Comberiate, a 
scientist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and a 
committed Seventh-day Adventist, is leading a NASA 
expedition to the North Pole beginning April 19.

The "Cool Space" expedition will be tracking floating 
icesheets using six satellites, and assisting Inuit 
students to process satellite data of the polar 
weather. In addition, the team will be taking soil 
samples at Resolute Bay, making ozone measurements at 
the Pole, and examining ice thickness. The 
investigation will help determine the decreasing ozone 
levels in the upper atmosphere and the thinning of 
Arctic sea ice caused by environmental changes.

Comberiate is the instigator of 53 "Cool Space" 
projects such as this over the past 15 years at NASA. 
He links his work closely to his belief in God.

"My chief concern is to develop my relationship with 
God in this process," says Comberiate. "As I travel to 
all the nooks and crannies of this planet, I find that 
I want God to be right there with me. I take on these 
extracurricular challenges because I want to.  I want 
the thrill and the opportunities to put something back 
into a system that has given me much.  I want to make a 
difference and to move people profoundly. I want to 
excite and encourage others to reach for the stars 
and get there, too!"

Comberiate is currently working on a book-on-tape 
entitled "Why a Rocket Scientist Trusts God" to develop 
his ideas that faith and science are not incompatible.

"It's logical, in view of the observable evidence, to 
trust in God, because the many issues of faith that we 
hold can be reasonably understood and need not be 
blindly believed," says Comberiate.

He will be accompanied on the expedition by other 
scientists, and fellow Adventist Richard Gamble, a 
photo-journalist who will prepare a documentary report 
of the trip. Comberiate and Gamble both attend the 
Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church in 
Spencerville, Maryland. 

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Adventist Press Service (APD)/
Adventist News Network (ANN) 1999.