MDRS Crew 26
March 14-27, 2004

During the active field season, the crew of the Mars Desert Research Station rotates every 2 weeks. These are the scientists and engineers who live and work on site within the MDRS. They explore all of the facets of human exploration in a simulated Mars environment. The MDRS will be active for a 7 month period.

Name	Speciality
Reece Lumsden	Commander
Heather Hava	Mechanical Engineer
Richard Humphreys	Physicist
Edwin Loosveldt	Education Specialist
Susmita Mohanty	Aerospace Architect
Jamon Neilson	Physicist

Reece Lumsden	Reece Lumsden is Managing Director of Lumsden Consulting (www.lumsdenconsulting.com), a broad based consultancy providing services to the Defence, Aerospace, Information Technology and hi-tech sectors. Prior to establishing Lumsden Consulting, he served five years as an Electrical Engineering Officer with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), discharging from the RAAF as a Flight Lieutenant at the end of 2002. Reece holds a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering from The University of Western Australia (UWA), a Masters of Space Studies from the International Space University (ISU), is currently completing a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) in Technology Management with La Trobe University and has recently been accepted to the Doctoral Program in Aerospace Science and Technology (DoCTA) with the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Aside from his space and entrepreneurial pursuits, he keeps fit with running and Taekwondo, in which he has a second dan black belt.
Heather Hava	My love for math and science inspired me to focus my life and education towards the goal of becoming a NASA mission specialist. After completing my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, I plan to obtain a M.S. in Geology and a PhD. in an Engineering field related to Mars habitation. While I work towards my astronaut dreams I want to work on other aspects of Mars research, mainly as it is related to astrobiology and the search for life. I have participated in many projects that will help me achieve these goals. In 2002, I was a flight crew member on the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) NASA Science Team that conducted an experiment on thermocapillary bubble motion in microgravity on the KC-135. Then I became the first student from Oregon and one of 13 students to be appointed research associate for the 2003 NASA Ames Astrobiology Academy. At Ames, I focused on two projects. My individual research involved designing the Deployment & Retrieval Module (reel and tether assembly) for the Mars Underground Mole (MUM) project lead by Dr. Carol Stoker. The mobile penetrometer (mole) uses laser light spectroscopy to analyze the mineralogy and search for water in the subsurface. This enables exploration of the subsurface where the planets history and evidence of life lies undisturbed and protected from solar radiation. For the team project, we tested a variety of metals for an accelerated rate of corrosion induced by the biotic processes of extremophiles. The test apparatus containing metals plates was submerged into the Menez Gwen hydrothermal vents in the mid- Atlantic Ocean then retrieved and analyzed. This summer, I will be a counselor for the OIT Space Technology Camp where I will teach design, mechanics and software programming of the current Martian rovers. At the Mars Desert Research Station, the crew and I will build the Lego-Mars Rover model and motorize it with the Lego-Mind Storm kit to be used in a simulated mission that the students will conduct during the Space Camp. When I have time for a little fun I enjoy: Skydiving (A license - 37 jumps and counting), SCUBA diving (advanced open water certified), snowboarding, spelunking, mountaineering, rock climbing, white water rafting, and I am CPR/first aid certified. The less dangerous side of me enjoys all forms of dance including 6 years of experience in middle-eastern dance.
Richard Humphreys	I am 28 years of age living in South Wales, UK. I am a serving police officer working on the streets and trying to stay out of trouble. I am married with five children, which with regularly running and playing badminton keeps me fit. I was educated through the medium of Welsh and developed a love of physics. Having chosen to go to work instead of University I am now in my second year of Open University study, hoping to obtain a named honours degree in physical science. This year I am studying astronomy and planetary science and the search for life, which naturally concentrates heavily on Mars. I have always been fascinated by the celestial bodies, growing up with the Voyager pictures. I have always dreamed of taking the journey into space. I have been an avid follower of the MDRS project since hearing about it about a year ago, but never thought I would have this opportunity. I am looking forward to joining the team and getting my gloves dirty with some real science.
Edwin Loosveldt	Edwin Loosveldt has been a teacher at the Technical Institute in Bruges, Belgium, and is now teaching and educating for the Euro Space Foundation, founded by former Belgian astronaut Dr. Dirk Frimout. Since 1995 he has been responsible and in charge of the pedagogical projects at the Euro Space Center (Space Camp) in Redu-Transinne, Belgium. Edwin has been a real space addict since 1957. At his former institute in Bruges he was head of a hobby club about space and astronomy for students. He even has had some space-related experiences such as a parabolic flight on board of the European Airbus Zero G in 2000 in Bordeaux, France. The main reason why he wants to take part in this MDRS Mission is because he sees it as a great opportunity and has a real desire to be part of this fantastic and magnificent challenge. He does not give up easily and he likes to explore and experience new frontiers and technologies and share them with youngsters. He is very eager to inform the public and particularly young people about missions to the Red Planet and to explain why it is important to go to Mars. This MDRS experience should be a starter for a dedicated Mars Camp Junior in Belgium for young people aged 12-18 with a special program that puts the Red Planet and future international manned Mars missions into the spotlight.
Susmita Mohanty	Susmita Mohanty considers herself to be a 'citoyen du monde'. Born and raised in India, educated in India and France, she currently lives with her husband in San Francisco and works on projects worldwide. She loves to travel and is an ardent backpacker. She hopes to go backpacking, a little further away from home, on Moon or Mars someday. As member of the MDRS Crew-26, Susmita brings with her an expertise in design, architecture, habitability and human factors. She also brings with her an international - intercultural - interdisciplinary perspective. Susmita has degrees in Electrical Engineering, Industrial Design, and Space Studies. She is an alumna of the International Space University. She has worked on the design of crew habitability systems, orbital and planetary habitats -- at NASA, ESA, MOONFRONT and LIQUIFER. She has led international Lunar and Martian base design projects. Susmita is the co-founder of the new genre in aerospace architecture called Trans-Gravity, a genre that believes in the earth-space continuum, transcends the man-in-a-can genre, promotes a culture of collaboration between Engineers-Architects-Designers, and aims for advanced, intelligent, sustainable, user-oriented architectures for living off the planet. Susmita feels that habitability standards onboard our current space habitats are unacceptable. She believes that to improve space habitability, we need to shift from the traditional 'engineering-centric' approach to a 'trans-disciplinary' approach because the former results in 'safe pressure vessels', while the latter can lead to 'habitats worthy of long-duration human habitation'. She advocates a change in paradigm for habitats from 'hardware to humanware'. As member of the MDRS Crew, she will be conducting an experiment in 'habitability and design'.
Jamon Neilson	Jamon Neilson is a researcher in the Enviromental Systems Department at the Space Dynamics Lab. His duties include designing and building space experiments. Some of the projects that he has been involved with are: LADA - is a growth chamber designed to grow a variety of plants that are being used on board the International Space Station. ORZS - is a follow up experiment to LADA, designed to study the diffusion processes in different substrate media. He also conducted several microgravity experiments on board NASA's KC-135 airplane to qualify some of the equipment for the ORZS project . DART - is a small sounding rocket design to make measurment of the upper atmosphere. He assisted in building an RC model that was used to test the guidence equipment. Bio-Mars Lander Demonstrator - is concept idea based on the LADA to build a robotic lander that would be sent to Mars to grow plants. This projects is being conducted in cooporation with the Mars Society. He is also a professional pilot and currently holds a private pilot license, instrument rating, commercial license, multi-engine rating, as well an instructor license. He has 330 hours of pilot in command time in various general aviation aircraft: Cessna, Piper Arrow, and Travel Air. When hes not being a scientist, you can usually find Jamon skiing, hiking, or skateboarding. His free time is usually spent hanging out with friends, and having a fun time finding lots of adventurious life experiences to participate in. He looks forward to the day when the traveling to the stars is as common places as going for a drive in the country.