MDRS Crew 84
November 28, 2009 - December 11, 2009
Daily Crew Reports

Name	Speciality
Judah Epstein	Commander / Health & Safety Officer
Barbara Burtscher	Crew Astrophysicist
Lara Vimercati	Crew Biologist
Kelly Rickey	Crew Engineer
Zak Wilson	Crew Engineer
Michael Neal	Crew Design Journalist / Executive Officer

Judah Epstein	Judah is currently pursuing studies towards PhD in Geosciences at the University of Texas at Dallas. He previously graduated from UTD with an M.S. in Management/Entrepreneurship and from SMU with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. Judah has worked throughout the USA and internationally on downhole robotic tools for horizontal well conveyance of perforating explosives and geoseismic logging operations as Field Engineer / Engineer In Charge in the oilfield. Judah also serves as a Reserve Deputy Sheriff, 2LT in the TX State Guard (currently in Medical Unit & previously Military Police), and in the Civil Air Patrol. He is active in the IEEE (Electrical Engineers), serving on the IEEE-CVT Board and previously as Chairman/Founder of his collegiate branch. While working in the oilfield, Judah was Chairman & Founder of the Central Arkansas Study Group of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. And while a student at SMU, Judah interned in the Robotics Laboratory working on the Pneumatic Haptic Interface System and also competed on the Varsity NCAA Division 1 Tennis Team. In Judah's free time he enjoys many activities such as tennis, scuba diving (professional divemaster), rock/ice climbing, skiing, kayaking, mountain biking, ping pong, competitive shooting, archery, HAM radio, softball, hiking, and basically all other fun activities. Judah also works part-time as Wilderness Guide Leader / Rock Climbing Guide / Medic for Frisco Wilderness Adventures. Last season Judah served as Crew Engineer / Executive Officer of MDRS Crew 78. Thereafter, he continued to support operations as part of the Engineering Team. Judah has ventured on many additional expeditions such as aqueduct development and Wounaan Indian expeditions deep in the Jungles of Panama, Muay Thai kickboxing training in Thailand, catching Anaconda & Piranha in Venezuela, medic in Jerusalem, military hurricane deployments and medical missions on the TX/MX border, staff leader/guide throughout Israel, adventure races in US, MX, Norway, and both competing and working as a Jungle Medic in the 7 day Jungle Marathon; 220+KM unsupported foot race through the Amazon Jungle. Judah's plan is to continue the adventure and join additional adventurous scientific research expeditions. This may include scientific research of extreme and remote environments, water exploration, expanding medic training (current Emergency Medical Technician EMT-B certified), completing his pilot's license (currently certified for solo flight), and continuing space exploration through additional research expeditions towards aspiration of becoming the ultimate explorer; an astronaut journeying to Mars.
Barbara Burtscher	Barbara Burtscher is an Astrophysicist, teaches physics at the Swiss high school in Wattwil, organises the Swiss Astronomy Day, is Partner of Astrophysics.ch LTD and Partner of the wealth management company 4Finance LTD. In addition she is President of the Swiss Astronomy Day Society, awarding every year the Swiss Astronomy Award. The next Swiss Astronomy Day will take place on the 11th of September 2010 in Basel in cooperation with the Swissôtel. She studied physics at the University in Zurich with specialization in Astrophysics and Finance as the minor field of study. Her career started in 2003 when she won several astronomy awards in Europe with her paper about "Observations of the comet 153P/Ikeya-Zhang and the taking, processing and analysis of the resulting pictures, with theoretical reflections". She had then the possibility to visit the VLT (Very Large Telescope) in Chile, the La Silla observatory and the ESO centre in Santiago. Afterwards she has done a practical at the Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial physics in Garching doing analyses of optical simultaneous CCD-pictures for XMM-Newton/Chandra-observations and in the year 2004 she participated in the 18th physics Nobel Prize winner meeting in Lindau and could meet Nobel Prize winners and discuss with them. During her studies, so before five years now, she founded together with her partner Martin Signer two companies, Astrophysics.ch to organise the Swiss Astronomy Day which takes place every year in Switzerland, and 4finance for independent wealth management, workshops and consulting. In 2005 she won the .Sky-Watch.-contest with her paper about .Observations of the Asteroid 2017 Wesson and the Trans-Neptunian Object 2003 UB313 and the taking, processing and analysis of the photographs taken of them with theoretical reflections., there she won her first own telescope. Meanwhile she owns a big telescope 20cm Meade LX200 GPS and has the possibility to observe with a 46cm Cassegrain from the ETHZ and to do remote observations with a two-metre Cassegrain reflector on La Palma on the Canary Islands. From 2006 until 2007 a Swiss TV documented the life of Barbara Burtscher, her research and her dream to become an astronaut, broadcasted in 2009 in .Horizonte. on SFDRS. In the summer of 2009 she participated in the International Space Camp 2009 in the NASA Education Center in Huntsville, Alabama and received a job as staff member to educate teachers and especially to show her live-observation-show of the starry sky, where the audience can see the objects live from the telescope projected on a big screen. Together with animations and music this is a big show fascinating the people. After her studies she started then teaching at the Swiss high school in Wattwil. She now teaches about 200 students in nine classes with a pensum of 114%. She likes her job very much and offers the students from next year the optional subject Astronomy and astronomical observations. One of her greatest hobbies is table tennis (TTC Toggenburg), that is why she is more than happy about the project the crew decided to play table tennis in the Mars Desert Research Station. www.BarbaraBurtscher.com
Lara Vimercati	Lara Vimercati has always dreamt of becoming an astronaut and one day joining the first manned mission to Mars. Since high school she was very interested in all science subjects and decided to pursue a Major in Biology while in college. As she had always wanted to work for NASA, she initiated her path towards space science through an internship at the Australian Center for Astrobiology. This 3 month internship permitted her to work on hyperthermophiles phylogenetics for her undergraduate thesis in 2007. Her interest in astrobiology and extremophiles has continued to grow since her undergraduate studies. After graduate school, Lara worked for 9 months in 2009 in a collaboration between SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center. In this assignment she focused on UV radiation resistant halophiles which were flown into space on the Biopan experiment. Lara also has a deep interest in evolutionary biology and the origin of life. She firmly believes that quantum mechanics will reveal the answers about the accident that we call life. Lara plans on pursuing a PhD in anything related to space science and would like to get a degree in geology and astrophysics. She can't wait to spend 2 weeks at MDRS, which will be a unique opportunity for her whereas she can further understand the experience of living and researching on Mars. In her free time, Lara enjoys travelling all over the world, trying extreme sports, hiking, camping, and being with friends. She hopes to climb the highest mountains on Earth, acquire a skydiver and pilot license, and explore the most remote and unknown places on the planet.
Kelly Rickey	Kelly Rickey has been interested in space exploration since she was in preschool. After graduating with a Mechanical Engineering degree from Columbia University in 2008, she pursued her life-long dream of working for NASA. Her work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is extremely fulfilling for her because she knows she.s contributing to interplanetary travel for humankind. She works as an associate engineer, performing calibration and optical research. Additional interests of hers include alternative energy systems, propulsion, and nanotechnology. In her free time she enjoys running, hiking, tap-dancing, and anything adventurous. When she is not getting some exercise, she enjoys playing pool, reading Scientific American, and watching The Colbert Report.
Zak Wilson	Zak Wilson graduated with a BS is mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2008. His senior project involved designing a deployment system for a small solar array on an experimental satellite. He completed a masters degree in composite materials from Imperial College in London, England in September of 2009. His thesis was on the effect of edge impact on the strength of carbon-fiber epoxy composites. He is currently looking at some PhD programs in composite materials trying to decide what to do next. His interest in space and space exploration has grown over the past few years as has his interest in becoming an astronaut. Zak is an experienced mountain biking rider and racer and also enjoys running, hiking, bouldering, camping and shooting pool.
Michael Neal	In 1990 a young Michael Neal gave a report to his fifth grade class on astronauts. To make the information more immediate his mother called NASA and had Michael share freeze-dried ice cream and dehydrated applesauce with the other students. Almost twenty years later he has picked up where he left off, only this time as a design writer and critic. Before moving to New York, he worked as art director for the advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, on brands such as Heal the Bay, and the global communications company, Cisco Systems. Earlier as a graphic designer for the Port of Long Beach, he helped to implement more eco-efficient publication practices to match with their .green port. policies. He obtained a BFA in visual communications from California State University, Long Beach. Currently, Michael is a graduate student at the School of Visual arts in New York as one of the inaugural class in design criticism. The MFA is a mixture of design history and journalism, applied to the fields such as architecture, industrial and graphic design, and advertising and realized in medium-specific applications such as radio programs, documentaries, curated exhibitions, magazines or blogs. Inspired largely by his fifth grade paper as well as Dr. Zubrin's, The Case for Mars, Michael's graduate thesis project is an examination and report on the efforts for designing a permanent settlement on Mars. This time, instead of applesauce and ice cream, he is using the MDRS to explore how design is being used to shape the Martian experience from scientific interactions to domesticity. As part of his research, he is examining ideas of utopianism and modernism intrinsically linked to off-world colonization. Such designs, too often lacking in wider reporting and scrutiny, will be both world building and world changing; and probably a bit more complicated than "just add water and stir."

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