Astrogeologists

Employers

Approximately 32,000 geoscientists (including geologists) are employed in the United States. Only a tiny fraction of these workers specialize in the field of astrogeology. One major employer of astrogeologists is the U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, which receives nearly all of its funding from the NASA Office of Solar System Exploration. Other major centers for research in exogeology include the Lunar and Planetary Institute (https://www.lpi.usra.edu) in Houston, Texas; NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (https://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov) in Moffett Field, California; the Planetary Science Institute (http://www.psi.edu) in Tucson, Arizona; and the Southwest Research Institute (https://www.swri.org) in San Antonio, Texas. Some astrogeologists hold faculty positions at colleges and universities and most of these combine their teaching with research.