Michael David Hicks

NASA JPL research scientist and asteroid/comet specialist who died on July 30, 2023, at age 59. No cause of death was ever made public. No record of an autopsy being performed could be found. He worked at JPL from 1998 to 2022 and was personally involved with the DART Project — NASA's test to determine whether humans could deflect a dangerous asteroid away from Earth. The Daily Mail identified him on April 7, 2026, as the ninth person with ties to America's space or nuclear secrets to have died or mysteriously vanished in recent years, noting that three of his closest colleagues — Frank Maiwald, Monica Reza, and Carl Grillmair — also died or disappeared in the years immediately following his death.

Field	Details
Full Name	Michael David Hicks
Born	February 7, 1964, Dayton, Ohio
Died	July 30, 2023
Age at Death	59
Location of Death	Sunland, California (Los Angeles area)
Cause of Death	Not disclosed
Official Ruling	None publicly available; no autopsy record found
Employer	NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 1998–2022
Category	Scientist / Astronomer / Planetary Defense

Assessment: MODERATE SUSPICION

A NASA JPL research scientist with over 80 peer-reviewed papers — including direct work on asteroid deflection and near-Earth object characterization — died at 59 with no cause of death ever publicly disclosed. No autopsy record has been located. He was personally involved with the DART Project, which tests the very technology that would determine whether humans can redirect a dangerous asteroid heading for Earth. Three colleagues from the same JPL/Caltech corridor died or vanished in the fourteen months that followed: Frank Maiwald (died July 2024), Monica Reza (vanished June 2025), and Carl Grillmair (shot February 2026). There are no public allegations of foul play specific to Hicks, and no known connection to classified UAP programs. The concern rests almost entirely on the institutional silence and the pattern of JPL/Caltech deaths that followed.

Circumstances of Death

Michael David Hicks died on July 30, 2023, in the Sunland area of Los Angeles — a community in the foothills north of the city, close to JPL in Pasadena. He was 59 years old. His obituary mentions no illness, no medical history, and no circumstances. The death appeared sudden.

No cause of death has been publicly released. According to the Daily Mail's April 7, 2026, investigation, no record of an autopsy being performed could be found. NASA, JPL, and the University of Arizona — his alma mater and his primary institutional affiliation — made no public statements about his passing. There was no JPL press release, no NASA memorial, and no Caltech acknowledgment.

The Daily Mail's coverage, which identified him as the "ninth person" in the pattern of space and nuclear secrets deaths, noted that all of this silence mirrored the institutional response to the deaths that followed: Frank Maiwald, his longtime JPL coworker, received the same treatment when he died in July 2024. No cause, no statement, no press release.

Background

Career at JPL

Hicks joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1998 as a postdoctoral research associate and remained there until 2022 — a tenure of 24 years. He held a Ph.D. in Lunar and Planetary Science from the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (1997), where he completed a dissertation titled "A Spectrophotometric Survey of Comets and Earth-Approaching Asteroids." He also held degrees from Boston University.

Over his career, Hicks published more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His specialty was the physical properties of comets and asteroids — particularly near-Earth objects (NEOs), the rocks that orbit close enough to Earth to pose a long-term impact threat.

Major Projects and Missions

• DART Project (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) — NASA's first planetary defense test, designed to determine whether a spacecraft impact could deflect a dangerous asteroid away from Earth. Hicks was a participating scientist on the DART science team.
• Deep Space 1 Mission — An early JPL mission that tested twelve experimental technologies in space, culminating in a flyby of Comet Borrelly in 2001. Hicks participated in the scientific analysis of the comet encounter.
• Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) Project — A JPL program specifically designed to survey and catalog near-Earth asteroids before they pose a threat. Hicks helped characterize the physical properties of objects detected by NEAT.
• Dawn Mission — NASA's mission to the asteroid belt, orbiting Vesta and Ceres. Hicks contributed to the scientific work on this mission.
• Asteroid Braille research — Participated in early characterization of asteroid Braille, one of the first close-approach NEO studies.

His research collaborators included Dr. Bonnie Buratti, a senior JPL researcher in planetary science.

Dual-Use Technology Context

The DART Project and NEAT are framed by the space community as planetary defense — protecting Earth from asteroid impacts. However, asteroid deflection technology has direct defense implications: the same propulsion and targeting expertise that redirects an asteroid can inform the design of kinetic interceptors for missile defense. The orbital mechanics of NEO characterization are closely related to the tracking of hypersonic and ballistic threats. Hicks's deep familiarity with the physical properties of fast-moving space objects — their albedo, composition, spin state, and trajectory — represents knowledge that sits at the intersection of planetary science and national security.

Personal Life

Beyond his scientific work, Hicks was described as an astronomer, artist, and father. He worked in multiple visual media: woodblock prints, oil painting, and metalwork. He played ukulele and regularly performed during observing sessions at Mount Palomar Observatory, bringing music to the long nights at the telescope. His obituary describes him as someone whose life extended in every direction beyond his career.

He left behind family and was mourned by colleagues at JPL and the University of Arizona's planetary science community.

The JPL Cluster: Four Scientists, Three Years

The Daily Mail's April 7, 2026, investigation explicitly noted that three of the scientists closely tied to Hicks also died or disappeared:

• Frank Maiwald — Hicks's longtime JPL coworker. Senior Technical Group Supervisor managing dual-use remote sensing instruments. Died July 4, 2024 — eleven months after Hicks. No cause of death disclosed. No autopsy. No institutional acknowledgment.
• Monica Reza — Director of JPL's Materials Processing Group at the time of her disappearance. Vanished June 22, 2025 while hiking in the Angeles National Forest. Was 30 feet behind her hiking companion when she disappeared without a trace.
• Carl Grillmair — Caltech/IPAC astrophysicist whose data pipeline ran through the same JPL campus. Shot and killed on the porch of his home in Llano, California, on February 16, 2026.

As The Sentinel Network noted: "Three people from the Southern California aerospace corridor. Reza invented the alloy. Grillmair validated the sensor pipeline. Maiwald managed the instruments. All three are gone." With Hicks's death in 2023 added to this group, the JPL/Caltech corridor has lost four scientists in three years — and the first of them died without any public explanation.

Why This Death Possibly Raises Questions

• No cause of death disclosed: The obituary contains no mention of illness, accident, or circumstances. Death appeared sudden at age 59.
• No autopsy record: The Daily Mail's investigation found no record of any autopsy being performed, which is unusual for an unexpected death at 59.
• Complete institutional silence: No press release from JPL. No memorial statement from NASA. No acknowledgment from Caltech. No coverage from local or national press. This mirrors the exact institutional silence surrounding Maiwald's death eleven months later.
• DART Project involvement: Hicks was a science team member on NASA's asteroid deflection mission — technology with direct dual-use national security implications.
• JPL corridor pattern: His three closest institutional colleagues — Maiwald, Reza, and Grillmair — all died or vanished within the three years after his death.
• The "ninth" identification: On April 7, 2026, the Daily Mail explicitly identified Hicks as the ninth person in the pattern of space and nuclear secrets deaths and disappearances, citing national security experts alarmed by the growing list.

The Counterargument

• Hicks was 59 at death, which while younger than average is not outside the range of natural causes — heart attack, stroke, or aneurysm can occur at that age without warning.
• His death in July 2023 predates the main 2024-2026 scientist cluster by over a year. The connection to Maiwald, Reza, and Grillmair may be institutional proximity rather than a causal link.
• No public allegations of foul play have been made by anyone who knew Hicks.
• His published work was in observational planetary science — not classified defense programs.
• Unlike some cluster members, no evidence has emerged that he held a security clearance or worked on classified projects.
• The Daily Mail's April 2026 framing as the "ninth person" may reflect pattern-matching rather than evidence of a connection.

The 2023-2026 JPL/Caltech Corridor

Name	Institution	Date	Event
Michael David Hicks (this profile)	JPL (1998-2022)	July 30, 2023	Died — no cause disclosed, no autopsy found
Frank Maiwald	JPL	July 4, 2024	Died — no cause disclosed, no autopsy
Monica Reza	JPL	June 22, 2025	Vanished hiking — no trace found
Carl Grillmair	Caltech/IPAC	Feb 16, 2026	Shot and killed on his porch

See Also

• JPL / LANL / AFRL Scientist Cluster 2023–2026 — Full overview of the nine scientists and defense insiders who died or vanished
• NASA JPL — Organization overview: four JPL-corridor scientists gone in three years
• Frank Maiwald — Longtime JPL coworker; died July 2024; no cause disclosed; Hicks's death extends the JPL cluster back to 2023
• Monica Jacinto Reza — JPL Director of Materials Processing Group; vanished June 2025
• Carl Grillmair — Caltech/IPAC astrophysicist; shot February 2026; same institutional family as Hicks
• William McCasland — Retired USAF Major General, AFRL commander; vanished February 2026; oversaw AFRL budget that funded JPL-adjacent research
• Anthony Chavez — Former LANL employee; vanished May 2025
• Melissa Casias — LANL employee; vanished June 2025
• Nuno Loureiro — MIT plasma physicist; shot December 2025

Other Shocking Stories

• Karl Wolfe: Air Force tech who saw classified lunar photos showing structures — killed by truck while cycling, 2018
• Mark McCandlish: Aerospace illustrator who testified about alien reproduction vehicles — died of shotgun blast days before Senate testimony
• Arie DeGeus: Zero-point energy inventor found dead in car at airport en route to secure major funding
• Philip Leonard: LANL high-explosives chemist killed in head-on crash on the same road to work, 2024

Sources

• Daily Mail: Mystery surrounds death of NINTH scientist tied to US secrets (April 7, 2026)
• Michael David Hicks — University of Arizona LPL In Memoriam
• Michael David Hicks (1964-2023) — University of Arizona LPL News
• Michael Hicks Obituary — Forest Lawn
• Michael C. Hicks — Google Scholar
• THE BLIND SPOT: Rocks Are Falling Through Our Roofs — The Sentinel Network (March 25, 2026)

This information was built by Grok and Claude AI research.

Status: Deceased (2023)