Update #3: Neal deGrasse Tyson

Again, real life is getting in the way of fun, so I'm nowhere near where I wanted to be right now. I hope to be done with the character descriptions by the end of the week, then all major stalling will be Beau's fault.

I found another piece of the puzzle this morning that is this whole story, and I ended up emailing astrophysicist Neal deGrasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium. Regular watchers of the Colbert Report should recognize him. You can check out his official website here and thereby get a tease as to a possible theme of the comic.