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MELISSA BATTLER - COMMANDER, CREW GEOLOGIST
Melissa Battler recently attained her Ph.D. from Western University's Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX), where she studied the mineralogy of Arctic cold springs and the detection of spring deposits on Mars. She holds an Honours B.Sc. in Earth Sciences from the University of Waterloo and a M.Sc. in Geology from the University of New Brunswick, and attended NASA Ames Academy in 2004. Melissa commanded a four month Mars mission simulation at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) in the Canadian High Arctic, and has served on six crews at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) from 2003 until 2007. In 2007 she won the "Tuna Can Award" for most time spent on analogue Mars. She co-founded Mars Society Canada’s pre-astronaut training program, Expedition Mars, and worked to develop the similar NASA Spaceward Bound program at MDRS. She has been a Canadian Space Agency Student Ambassador for 8 years, and is founder of and advisor to several local and national space advocacy groups. Her goals include promoting space exploration activities within Canada and throughout the world, inspiring and training future astronauts, and continuing her search for evidence of life on Mars, preferably as an astronaut herself. Melissa has advanced wilderness first aid training (and experience!), and in her spare time enjoys rock climbing, hiking, yoga, cooking, and playing guitar.
VOLKER MAIWALD - XO, HABITAT ENGINEER
Volker Maiwald has studied aerospace engineering at the RWTH Aachen and graduated in late 2009, aged 27. He began working for the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) Institute of Space Systems soon after. In the department of System Analysis Space Segment he is mostly related to systems engineering work for predevelopment/ concept studies of spacecraft and missions and for organizing and moderating Concurrent Engineering studies in the department’s respective laboratory, the CEF (Concurrent Engineering Facility). Topics of studies have been e.g. the Trojan Investigation Probe (TRIP), the Crewed European exploRation MIssion Trail (CERMIT) and the Facility of Laboratories for Sustainable Habitation (FLaSH).
Besides these tasks he is a mission analyst and teaches spaceflight dynamics at the University of Bremen, also pursuing a PhD in this field.
In his spare-time he enjoys playing the guitar, traveling, learning Chinese, sports and diving. Being curious and an explorer at heart, he likes to inform himself about all kinds of scientific discoveries and especially the exploration of space.
HANS VAN 'T WOUD – MAPPING RESEARCHER, Health & Safety Officer (HSO)
Hans van ‘t Woud (1983) born in Leiden, the Netherlands, studied Human Centered Multimedia at the University of Amsterdam where he was awarded his MSc degree regarding this research. Before this he graduated for his Bachelor at the Rotterdam University, partly the Willem de Kooning Academy of Arts, for the education Communication and Multimedia Design. After this he worked a period as product manager for a company involving health care software. During his Master study at the University of Amsterdam he participated in a project regarding learning with mobile devices where he was responsible for the general interface design. Nowadays he is full time entrepreneur for his company, BlackShore, where he is taking Cerberus to the next level. For this he is collaborating closely and participated with success in the ESA business incubation centre in the Netherlands. Worth mentioning Cerberus is is the GMES master 2012 overall winner and the winner of the European Space Imaging High-Res challenge.
MATTHEW CROSS – ROVER ENGINEER
Matt Cross is a first year PhD student at the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX) at the University of Western Ontario. He studied aerospace engineering at Carleton University in Ottawa and completed a BEng, and MEng. He then worked at the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Education Projects Unit as the project coordinator for the European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO). Not satisfied with a single master’s degree, he completed a MASc while working on the Kapvik micro-rover project which was developed for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)’s Exploration Surface Mobility (ESM) program. Matt is originally from the West Coast of Canada, and as a true West Coaster is a coffee enthusiast, amateur surfer, and yoga novice.
CSILLA ORGEL – GEOLOGIST
In 1987, Csilla Orgel was born in Kaposvár, in the country side of Hungary. As high school student she was selected to the NASA’s International Space Camp in the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama based on a written essay about future manned Mars mission. In 2011 Csilla has got her Bachelor of Science in Earth Sciences at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, and she is currently doing there her Master of Geology. Her research is related to ice, water and sedimentary related processes on Earth and Mars based on remote sensing data handled in GIS. In the beginning of her university career she started to study the periglacial surface processes on debris-covered glaciers at the mid-latitudes of Mars. She won the 1st Prize in the National Science Student Conference in the Session of Geomorphology I. and she participated in few national and international conferences and workshops. She is working on Mars Analog Research with Austrian Space Forum in the PolAres project and teaching the analog astronauts of Aouda.X and Aouda.S space suit simulators for the basics of geology and geological field work. She participated in „Rio Tinto Mission 2011” as the Deputy Science Lead in the Mission Control Center in Innsbruck, Austria. In „Dachstein Mars Simulation Mission 2012” she worked with LATMOS team on ExoMars’s WISDOM radar in the Giant Ice Cave. She is currently involved to the „MARS 2013” mission - 4 weeks field expedition in the desert of Morocco - as Science Operations in the Mission Support Center in Innsbruck, Austria. In 2012 she was a part of the 4 days field reconnaissance mission for the selection of MARS2013’s BASE camps. In 2012 she was selected to the International Astronautical Congress as ESA-sponsored student. From 2012 she is the Board member of the Hungarian Astronautical Society.
AYAKO ONO – HUMAN FACTORS/CREW JOURNALIST
Ayako Ono is a PhD candidate in Behavioral Medicine at Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan. Her keen interests are in Space Psychiatry, group dynamics and social interactions of astronauts within a confined isolated environment including problems of habitability. She was the first artist in residence at the European Space Agency (ESA/ESTEC), and she specializes in Space Art. Her belief is that artistic elements could be a psychological support and is trying to proof the effects. She was recently lead a collaborative art project which she helped to create a pair of musical instruments suitable for weightlessness. They were successfully played by NASA astronaut Daniel C. Burbank, Expedition 30 Commander, aboard the International Space Station (ISS/Kibo) through the Japan Aerospaces Exploration Agency (JAXA). He commented positively about his experience and the potential of space musical instruments. She has a unique combination of knowledge and practical experience on Neurology and Space Medicine research, Space Art projects, Management, Team Building and Leadership skills. She participated in Crew 100A at MDRS in 2011 and is looking forward to participating in Crew 125 under a female commander.
SEE BELOW FOR LINKS TO MISSION REPORTS
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