Crew 119 - Phoenix One

JOHN REYNOLDS - COMMANDER

John Reynolds was born in Seattle, Washington, and has lived within numerous cities in the US

and Japan. After graduating from Washington State University with a BA in Education, he worked

in Isfahan, Iran training Iranian army helicopter pilots during the last days of the Shah’s regime in

the late 1970’s. From there he began a career as a professional airline pilot and flew with various

international airlines in Africa, the Middle East, Germany, Belgium and for the longest period in

the UK. All long-haul operations were working in various environments with international and local

crews of varying degrees. His spare time is spent doing DIY, fixing and refurbishing various rental

properties as a business, reading, and doing FOREX as a day trader. When not busy with work, he

likes to travel, visiting family and friends and being involved with The Mars Society. The short story.

PAULA CROCK - XO / HSO

Since graduating with a BS in Physics, Paula has been a research and development scientist working

in remote sensing sensor calibration and data analysis. Additionally, in February through October of

2007 she was a Research Associate at McMurdo Station, Antarctica launching a series of ozonesondes

to collect data on the ozone hole as it forms throughout the winter. While there she was delighted to

observe how different living with a small, isolated group in an extreme environment was, socially and

psychologically. Her experience in Antarctica inspired a return to school and she is now pursing an MS

in Space Studies at University of North Dakota to study both human factors of space exploration and

remote sensing of the cryosphere.

Paula spends most of her free time outdoors year-round. She competes in orienteering races and sprint

triathlons, snorkels New England’s coastline, and hikes or snowshoes the many trails of New England’s

interior. She is a certified Wilderness First Responder.

HABIB PALENFO - CREW ENGINEER

Habib Palenfo is a Senior Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering undergrad at Colorado State

University. He was born in Ivory Coast. Early in his youth, he left his native home and attended

boarding school in France. He then studied Computer Science upon graduating from high school

with a Scientific Baccalaureate. While on the path of studying engineering, he has participated

in several engineering projects; from NASA Robot Challenge to Medical Design Software. He

is also completing a minor in Math and Business Administration, with hopes of one day opening

his own Aerospace or Engineering Consulting Company. Finally, his main goal is being an

Astronaut and one day goes to space. In his free time, Habib spends his time flying airplane and

pursuing his Private Pilot License.

Hoping to be the first West African Astronaut, he spends the rest of his time training on a

simulator he built himself in his home. He is really excited to be a part of MDRS 119 crew,

which might seem like a small step to some but is a giant step for him.

LISA STEWART - CREW SCIENTIST

Lisa Stewart is a PhD candidate at The Australian National University where her research

interests include exploring how social context and uncertainty influence decision-making,

developing computational models of human cognition, and advancing web-based experimental

methods.

DAN WILCOX - CREW JOURNALIST

Dan Wilcox is an artist, engineer, performer, and musician who combines live musical performance techniques with experimental electronics and software for exploration into themes of science fiction,  space travel, cyborgification, and far futurism.

An engineering background tempered by a punk rock craving for raw energy of expression, risk, and humor leads to work that is robustly made yet spontaneously executed: a technological caveman beating a drum with an iPad to a musical cyborg thrashing in a spaghetti of purposefully connected cables.

Dan is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon and his thesis project is a live audio-visual journey to Mars covering contemporary plans and technology, physical realities, and the overarching larger themes of mankind in space. The aim is to both educate and excite in ways beyond the typical venues for "edutainment".

He hails from the Rocket City, Huntsville AL USA.

HERE ARE LINKS TO INDIVIDUAL CREW REPORTS.  FOR A BETTER ORGANIZED LIST, GO TO THE CREW REPORTS PAGE.