Savannah Mandel

Savannah Mandel is a Visiting Assistant Professor with the Academy of Transdisciplinary Studies. Her research has primarily focused on the ethics and economics of human space exploration and space mining. She has published widely across diverse formats and makes an effort to translate academic research to general audiences.

Mandel’s first book, Ground Control: An Argument for the End of Human Space Exploration was published by Chicago Review Press in 2024 for general audiences. Based on ethnographic fieldwork at Spaceport America and essays on the ethics of humans space exploration it asks “should we go? Is it worth it to send humans to space? What cultural outcomes will result from continued human space exploration and the colonization of other worlds? And last, what can we learn about our present selves by studying our most extreme visions of the future?”

Mandel is currently completing a second book project on the history and economics of asteroid mining. Asteroid Fever: Space Prospectors and the Legacy they Leave Behind, investigates the commodification of space objects and the rise and fall of the space mining industry.

Mandel’s research as been featured in VTx News, on NPR, in the Geek Anthropologist, frankie Magazine, The Space Review, and on numerous radio stations and podcasts. In 2025, she was awarded the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Outstanding Doctoral Student award.