Heh. OR, that he would own up to??? What I know of Schoch is what I've seen on the NatGeo/History/Discovery channels over a period of ~10 years. That said, he seems like a sensible guy, not typically prone to hyperbole or sensationalism. That I've noticed anyway. I don't know if you caught the item in the article about "flybys". In addition to noting the possibility of comet strikes or flybys, he also eluded to "other objects" as a possibility. Just what might they be??? He doesn't elaborate. Without saying so, he very nearly takes a scenario out of WiC, no? He must have serious tenure or has already locked in his financial future to put his career on the line associating himself with catastrophes in recorded history. "V" is probably somewhere smiling.
Prior to the US manned lunar landings, Dr V was consulted by NASA regarding any tests he’d like to see conducted, that were reasonable within the limits of both mobility and time constraints, and he gave them his suggestions.
Prior to 1969 (and really prior to 1972, when a geologist actually went there; and in a real sense, prior to the Alvarez model for impact extinction; and in an even more real sense, prior to the SL-9 comet impacts on Jupiter in 1994) the origin of lunar craters and maria was still being fought over.
Sagan became a media darling even then, pointing out that there was the impact camp, and there was the volcanic camp, and that they didn’t like each other, and that when a lone figure (I’m guessing Thomas Gold, but I don’t know) came along suggesting a combination of both, neither side liked him.
The one test suggested by Dr V that springs to mind was a subsurface temperature-taking; according to his model, there should be a “steep thermal gradient” as readings are taken deeper and deeper. And he suggested that rock samples should be checked for “fossil” magnetism, to see if, when molten, they were exposed to very high magnetic fields.