Michael David Hicks

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory astrophysicist and 24-year JPL career researcher who worked on the DART asteroid deflection mission — the first demonstration of kinetic impact as a planetary defense technique, explicitly documented by the Space Force Association as dual-use technology — and died at his Sunland, California home on July 30, 2023, at age 59. No cause of death was publicly released at the time; a coroner record listing cardiovascular disease was found later, but the case was marked as "open."

Field	Details
Full Name	Michael David Hicks
Born	February 7, 1964
Died	July 30, 2023, Sunland, California (age 59)
Age at Death	59
Location of Death	Sunland, California (his residence)
Cause of Death	Arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease (per coroner) — no cause released publicly at time of death
Official Ruling	Natural (coroner) — case status marked "open" by medical examiner
Nationality	American
Killed on US Soil	Yes
Category	Scientist / Astrophysicist
Investigation	Physics

Assessment: MODERATE SUSPICION

Hicks's death was not immediately flagged as suspicious. The coroner subsequently identified cardiovascular disease as the cause. What draws attention is the combination of factors: no public cause was provided for weeks, the coroner listed the case as "open" despite a natural ruling, Hicks had worked on the DART mission which the Space Force Association described as inherently dual-use, and his death in July 2023 preceded the subsequent documented cluster of deaths among scientists in adjacent domains. His case is included here as the first data point in a pattern that became more legible only in retrospect.

Circumstances of Death

Michael David Hicks died at his residence in Sunland, California on July 30, 2023. He was 59. At the time of his death, Hicks had left JPL approximately one year earlier after a 24-year career; he had been a research scientist there from 1998 through approximately 2022.

No cause of death was made public in the immediate weeks following his death. Early professional memorials and obituaries noted that no cause was given. His memorial service was held on September 30, 2023, at the Will and Ariel Durant Library Community Room in Los Angeles.

His Forest Lawn obituary included a suggestion to donate to al-anon.org, an organization for families affected by alcoholism; the significance, if any, is unknown.

Coroner Record

Subsequent investigative reporting (Newsweek and others covering the broader scientist death pattern) located an LA County Coroner record for Hicks that listed:

• Cause of death: Arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease (heart disease / blocked arteries)
• Significant condition: Morbid obesity
• Manner of death: Natural
• Case status: "Open" as listed by the medical examiner at the time of reporting

The reason why the cause was not publicly released at the time of death and the reason the case carries "open" status despite a natural ruling have not been publicly explained.

Background

Michael David Hicks was born on February 7, 1964. He earned advanced degrees from Boston University and received his Ph.D. in Lunar and Planetary Science from the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in 1997. His doctoral dissertation was titled "A Spectrophotometric Survey of Comets and Earth-Approaching Asteroids."

In 1998, he joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a postdoctoral research associate, transitioning to research scientist. Over 24 years at JPL, he published 80+ peer-reviewed papers in The Planetary Science Journal, Nature, and other journals. He is survived by his daughter Julia, his father Richard, his ex-wife Brunella, and several siblings.

He left JPL approximately one year before his death.

Physics Connections

DART — Dual-Use Kinetic Impactor Technology

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, launched November 24, 2021, from Vandenberg Space Force Base. On September 26, 2022, the DART spacecraft intentionally impacted Dimorphos — a moonlet of the asteroid Didymos — shortening its orbital period by 32 minutes. This was the first demonstration in human history that kinetic impact can measurably alter an asteroid's trajectory.

Hicks was a member of the DART Science Team.

Dual-use documentation: The Space Force Association explicitly noted that DART technology is "inherently dual use." The same capabilities that deflect an asteroid away from Earth can, in principle, redirect objects toward Earth. The kinetic impactor technology — spacecraft guidance, terminal targeting, impact physics — has documented weapons-relevant characteristics. This dual-use nature was publicly acknowledged in defense policy analysis, not merely inferred.

Spectrophotometric Characterization — Physical Properties of Asteroids and Comets

Hicks's primary scientific specialty was spectrophotometry of near-Earth objects — measuring the surface composition, reflectivity, porosity, and density of asteroids and comets by analyzing their reflected light. This work is prerequisite knowledge for predicting how a kinetic impactor will interact with a specific object: the denser and more coherent the body, the more efficiently momentum transfers; a porous rubble-pile behaves differently from a solid iron body.

Understanding an object's physical response to impact is directly applicable to both:

• Deflecting an asteroid away from Earth (planetary defense)
• Predicting the behavior of a kinetic impactor against another type of target (weapons physics)

Additional Mission Work

• NEAT (Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking Project): Science team member on JPL's ground-based asteroid survey program
• Dawn Mission (asteroid belt): Science team; Dawn orbited Vesta and Ceres, characterizing two large bodies in the main asteroid belt
• NASA Deep Space 1: Science team; a technology demonstrator mission with ion propulsion

Why This Case Raises Questions

• No public cause of death was released at the time of his death — unusual for a scientist at a federal research institution
• The coroner case is listed as "open" despite a natural ruling, with no public explanation provided for the open status
• Hicks left JPL approximately a year before death — the circumstances of his departure are not documented publicly
• His work on DART places him in the dual-use technology domain that has attracted scrutiny in the broader 2023–2026 pattern
• His death in July 2023 coincides with (and precedes) the cluster of deaths among scientists in adjacent fields: Maiwald (July 2024), Reza (June 2025), Casias (June 2025), Chavez (May 2025), Loureiro (December 2025), McCasland (February 2026 disappearance), Grillmair (February 2026)

The Counterargument

• The coroner identified a specific, documented, natural cause: arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with morbid obesity as a contributing condition. This is among the most common causes of death in middle-aged American men.
• An "open" case status in a medical examiner system does not necessarily indicate suspicion — it may reflect pending administrative closure
• Hicks had left JPL approximately a year before his death, and there is no documented indication he was still involved in sensitive research
• No law enforcement investigation was opened; no suspicious circumstances have been identified beyond the pattern inference
• The "cluster" pattern is disputed by authorities who have stated they see no coordinated connection across these deaths

The @TMBSPACESHIPS Diagram Connection

On January 25, 2026 — thirty months after Hicks's death — an anonymous X account called @TMBSPACESHIPS (a self-described 38-year retired USAF PhD engineer with family who worked in classified programs since the mid-1960s) posted a technical diagram labeled "BROWN-CAHILL METHOD for the REDUCTION of KINETIC PERMITTIVITY of FREE SPACE."

The diagram described a plasma-based antigravity propulsion system integrating precisely the subsystems that define the specialties of the 2023–2026 cluster: plasma control (Loureiro), advanced propulsion materials and high-temperature alloys (Reza), dual-use infrared sensor characterization (Grillmair), nuclear/thorium-adjacent power (Chavez, Casias), and AFRL oversight of the full propulsion portfolio (McCasland). Hicks's specialty — characterizing the physical properties of small celestial bodies for kinetic impact prediction — fits the sensor and targeting physics underlying the same propulsion domain.

See William McCasland and Thomas Townsend Brown for full context on the diagram.

Other Shocking Stories

• Carl Grillmair: Caltech planetary defense scientist shot on his rural porch in February 2026 — eleven weeks after his alleged killer was arrested on his property with a loaded rifle, and eleven days after gun charges were dismissed.
• Nuno Loureiro: MIT plasma physicist and fusion center director shot at his home December 2025.
• Frank Maiwald: NASA JPL senior RF engineer with dual-use defense work died July 4, 2024 — cause of death never released, no autopsy.
• William McCasland: AFRL commander overseeing propulsion R&D disappeared Feb 27, 2026.

See Also

• Carl Grillmair — JPL/Caltech planetary defense scientist shot February 2026; parallel dual-use profile
• Frank Maiwald — NASA JPL senior RF engineer with dual-use defense instruments; died July 2024, no cause ever released
• William McCasland — AFRL commander overseeing the propulsion domains described in the @TMBSPACESHIPS diagram; missing Feb 2026
• Monica Jacinto Reza — Advanced propulsion materials scientist; vanished June 2025; funded under McCasland's AFRL budget
• Electromagnetic_Propulsion — Theoretical framework connected to the @TMBSPACESHIPS Brown-Cahill diagram
• Thomas Townsend Brown — "Brown" in the Brown-Cahill Method; pioneer of electrogravitics; classified after 1956
• Michael David Hicks (UAP Deaths) — Profile emphasizing the UAP-cluster context

Sources

• AAS Division for Planetary Sciences memorial
• Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona memorial
• Forest Lawn obituary
• Newsweek — coroner findings and the broader scientist death list
• Newsweek — list of suspicious scientist deaths
• NewsNation — UAP context
• Yahoo News — growing list of dead/missing NASA scientists
• @TMBSPACESHIPS Brown-Cahill Method diagram on X — Jan 25, 2026

Status: Deceased (2023)

This information was compiled by Claude AI research.