MDRS Crew 36
Red Flyer - Phase II - March 13 - 19, 2005

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
Shannon Rupert	Mission Commander - Biology
Stacy Sklar	Executive Officer - Lead Geologist
Kelly Cole	Hab Engineer
Amber Church	Geologist & HSO
Lindsay Turner	Comms Officer & Research Assistant
Debra Weiner	Journalist
Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto	Geologist

Shannon Rupert	Shannon Rupert holds the record for time spent at MDRS, having served both as biologist and/or commander on Crews 4, 14, 21, and now 36. She is extremely proud to be a part of the first all woman crew at MDRS. She has also been to FMARS and MARS-OZ, making her one of only two people who have done research at all three stations. She is involved in a long-term microbial ecology research project focusing on development of a worldwide Mars Analog Microbial Observatory. In 2004, she and her research partner conducted biodiversity studies at all three sites. In addition, she is the Remote Science Team Lead for the NASA Mobile Agents Project and Coordinator of the MDRS Remote Science Team Coordinator. Shannon is a founding member of the San Diego Chapter of the Mars Society and a member of the Association of Mars Explorers. She also gives public lectures in her role as Solar System Ambassador through NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. While it does indeed seem like her world revolves around Mars analog research, she still manages to find time to spend with her family and her three horses, two dogs and two cats.
Stacy Sklar	Stacy Sklar is currently attending Northern Arizona University studying Geology. Stacy has been an active member of the Mars Society since the second convention in Denver (1999). She was apart of the scouting group looking for Mars analog sites for MDRS in the American Southwest. Stacy scouted locations in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah in 2000/2001. She also served as a crewmember of the shakedown crew during the Christmas break 2001, as a crewmember (rotation three) during a one-week rotation, spring break 2002, and as backroom geologist for Expedition One Feb/March 2003 and Expedition Alpha Dec 2004. During the 2004 MDRS field season Stacy has served as the RST Geologist for various crews including Crew 21, 25 and Crew 29 (NASA Mobile Agents). Stacy's non-science interest include Ancient Roman, Greek, and Chinese archeology. In her spare time she likes to hike, backpack, and spend time with her family and friends. Stacy is excited to be working with the first all female crew and to further study the extremophiles and concretions surrounding MDRS.
Kelly Cole	Originally from fabulous Southern California, this independent and out-going young woman relocated to the University of Illinois last August to pursue a major in Aerospace Engineering. She has come the love the “small town” feel of central Illinois, however misses her Sierra Madre mountains, Newport beaches, and Mohave desert desperately. Having been an avid amateur astronomer all her life and possessing a passion for the outdoors, it only comes naturally for Kelly to want to take a pro-active step in the exploration and development of space. She is also a cadet in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corp at the University of Illinois, and hopes to be commissioned as a research engineer for the government’s space program. Always one to pursue her interests, whether it be herpetology, Asian culture, or spinning rifles for the AFROTC drill team (all passions of hers), what better way to do this than be a part of such a fabulous hands-on research program such as the Mars Society? She has found a niche among the adventurous people involved in the program, coming from a background of backpacking, white-water rafting, and long drives at 2am to see the peak hours of a certain meteor shower. Hopefully becoming more and more involved, Kelly will be able to make more of an impact, and will be able to contribute as much as she has learned from so many inspiring people.
Amber Church	Amber Church completed a double honors degree in Earth and Ocean Science and Environmental Science from the University of Victoria in April 2004. Since then her time has been spilt between working for the Quaternary Research Group at the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines and undertaking a research apprenticeship through the University of Washington on seismic activity and the Endeavour hydrothermal vent fields off the western coast of Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for the Mars Society of Canada and is helping to organize various initiatives for them including their proposed research on Devon Island as part of the International Polar Year. Amber has completed lots of geological fieldwork before across western Canada and the States in many different sub-fields of geology including quaternary geology, bedrock mapping, marine geology, geochemistry and geophysics. This mission will be her first time undertaking Mars analogue geology and this is also her first trip to Utah, so she is very excited. She plans to spend the first couple of weeks of May this year in Iceland and will then hopefully spend her summer completing fieldwork based out of her hometown of Whitehorse, in the Yukon. She plans to be traveling next fall with her first stop taking her to do some work in the Amazon Basin of Brazil with her undergraduate honors thesis supervisor. By 2006 she hopes to be attending grad school, in a as of yet to be determined field. Amber is an avid rock climber, skier, mountain biker and surfer. At any given moment she can usually found scheming her next big trip, be that a backpacking trip through Peru or a day hike on Vancouver Island. She also loves photography and art. She is looking forward to working with everyone at MDRS and to everything there that she will learn.
Lindsay Turner	Lindsay Turner is a biology student at the College of Lake County, in Grayslake Illinois. She is currently focused on biology & has a penchant for applying it to help animals. However, Lindsay is a curious soul, and is eager to apply her knowledge to a broad range of biological specialties. This simulation is the first involment Lindsay has had with the Mars Society. She hopes her hard work during the explorations of Crew 36 will broaden her experience, and give her a deeper insight into where her scientific interests lie. On her spare time volunteers at an animal shelter taking care of animals & helping them get adopted into loving homes.
Debra Weiner	Debra Weiner is a veteran print journalist with articles in numerous national and international publications, ranging from an in-depth interview with Cambodia's Prince Sihanouk for Playboy Magazine, to covering a coup d'etat in Thailand for the New York Times; to searching for man-eating tigers in India for Outside Magazine. She has worked in television as a writer and on-camera reporter, has published short fiction, and contributed to several books. Debra optioned her first screenplay, "Siam Passage," a romantic intrigue, and is trying to finish her second script, a romantic comedy. Recently, she was selected as one of 7 writers in the development of a feature screenplay for Split Pillow Entertainment. Debra has also performed as an actor in movies, television and on stage. She now lives in Chicago with her 8-year-old son, Sam, who wishes he could be joining us on Mars.
Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto	Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto attends Arizona State University majoring in Geology and currently focusing her studies in the field of planetary geology. She is a NASA Space Grant Intern and works under the leadership of Dr. Ronald Greeley. She is involved with all aspects of investigation pertaining to the aeolian dynamics of the planet Mars and how it affects the surface structure; assembling data for analysis and of selection of high priority regions of the planet which will aid in the final decisions of future landing sites, both robotic and human. She provides photographic support from Viking images, Mars Global Surveyor images (MOC), and THEMIS data which will assist in these studies for comparisons of aeolian features relevant throughout a four decade period to determine Mars change detection of aeolian features. Also, she gathers data for the Athena 2003 Mars missions. Most of her research has been that of processing MOC imagery, locating aeolian features, calculating densities and determine wind directions within high priority landing sites; especially that of the MER-A, MER-B rover missions (NASA> '> s Spirit and Opportunity) and that of the ESA Mars Express. She also holds the position of Educational Outreach Coordinator for the Arizona State University NASA Space Photography Laboratory. Veronica founded the Mars Society Chapter of Phoenix (Chapter President), the National Space Society of Phoenix (Chapter President), and the Astronaut Hopefuls of Arizona. She has been recently selected to be a Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassador for the state of Arizona. The Solar System Ambassadors Program is a public outreach program designed to work with motivated volunteers across the nation. These volunteers communicate the excitement of JPL's space exploration missions and information about recent discoveries to people in their local communities. The Solar System Ambassadors Program is sponsored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, an operating division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and a lead research and development center for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). While at MDRS Veronica Ann will be mostly on EVA taking measurements of concretions located near MDRS for her thesis at Arizona State University. Recipient of the NASA Space Grant Consortia, Veronica Ann will continue the scouting campaign of the MDRS area in search of biological concretions, as first discovered by Melissa Battler on Expedition One. These concretions are of similar size and charateristics to the "blueberries" concretions found by the MER Opportunity Rover on Meridiani Planum on Mars.