Andrew Goldman (geo-physicist)

Andrew Goldman

Information
Name: Andrew Goldman
Affiliation: NSDF

Andrew Goldman was a geophysicist working with the NSDF. Before his assassination in 1958 he worked on biometal and the examination of the Sol system.

Disappearance

Nothing is known of Goldman's life before joining the NSDF. In August 1958 Goldman was reportedly found dead, shot in his car in a similar manner to colleague William Stahl. No formal connection was ever found between the apparent murders, but the reality was that neither man was dead; both of their deaths had been faked in order to allow them to disappear from public life to join the NSDF.

With the NSDF

Goldman was a member of the NSDF's terrestrial staff during its first few months of formation. He was responsible for assessing the samples of biometal recovered during the Alaskan Expedition following the Bering Strait meteor shower, a matter in which he reported to President Eisenhower. Goldman determined that the material was the result of alien manufacture, and that a much greater quantity than that found had passed through the solar system in the preceding years. He also concluded that the debris was the result of a cataclysm involving a massive alien structure of roughly equivalent size to, or possibly greater than, Earth, and that this object was approximately 100 trillion kilometers (or 11 light-years) away when it shattered. Based on this, Goldman theorized that the biometal debris would have been subject to the gravitational influence of every other planet in the solar system before reaching Earth.

Based on this conjecture Goldman's staff provided thorough observation of the bodies within the first 10 AU of the Sol system. The team looked at them as candidates for further exploration and ranked them accordingly, based on likelihood of biometal deposits, proximity to Earth, and environmental hostility. Six locations - ranked in order as Luna, Mars, Venus, Io, Europa and Titan - were identified, and a detailed report was provided on each.

Goldman's report was included in the NSDF Field Briefing Guide, compiled just before the start of the biometal war over a decade later to bring NSDF recruits up to speed in preparation for deployment.

Trivia

• Goldman is named after Andrew Goldman, Battlezone director and later Pandemic Studios CEO.
• Goldman's suggested location of the origin of the biometal samples does not match with the former location of Icarus; in fact, it is four thousand times further away.

Appearances

• Battlezone Manual (First mentioned)
• Battlezone (Mentioned only)