MDRS Crew 61
April 1-14, 2007

Crew 61 is the fifth (and Finest!) team to inhabit the MDRS this season thanks to the generous sponsorship of the NASA Spaceward Bound Program. The NASA Spaceward Bound Program is organized at NASA Ames in partnership with The Mars Society, and funded by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) at NASA Headquarters. The focus of the Spaceward Bound program is to enable crew members, principally educators and college students, to participate in two-week full-scale immersive simulation of living and working on Mars at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS). Crew 61 is an international and interdisciplinary crew composed of members from Belgium, Peru, Spain and the United States with varying academic and professional backgrounds. The crew includes representatives from two NASA contractors (Jacobs Technology and Boeing) and students from universities in the United States and Belgium. The crew will perform exploration, scientific experiments, and engineering demonstrations while living for two weeks in the MDRS habitat. The central theme of the mission is "Emergency Preparedness." Core to this theme are activities dealing with EVA emergencies, radiation poisoning prevention and EVA radiation emergency protocols, and an emergency air quantity/location study. Upgrades to station documentation and preparation for the off-season are also on the agenda, as this is the final mission of the 2006-2007 MDRS Season.

Name	Speciality
Chip Shepherd	Commander
Alejandro R. Diaz	Executive Officer & EVA Coordinator
Marcus Medley	Crew Engineer
Elizabeth Wolfe	Journalist & Geologist
Pieter Jan Van Asbroeck	Mission Biologist & HSO
Irene Schneider Puente	Mission Physicist & Radiation Safety Specialist

Chip Shepherd	Chip Shepherd has worked for various companies at the NASA Johnson Space Center since 1987 and has been involved in Space Shuttle, NASA-Mir, International Space Station, unmanned COMET spacecraft, and the new Constellation Programs (hmm, just can't seem to hold a job...). Currently, he is the ESCG (Engineering & Science Contract Group) Project Manager for Architecture, Habitation, and Integration and helped create two full-scale lunar habitat mockups at JSC over the past two years. Born in Fresno, California, in 1961, Chip was Valedictorian at Hampshire High School (Romney, WV), holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from West (By God!) Virginia University and a Master of Biomedical Engineering degree from the University of Texas at Austin (Hook 'Em!). He has been awarded the Distinguished Service Key from the WVU chapter of Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity, and in 2006 he was awarded the President's Award for the Jacobs Technology Company. He shares a patent for the EVA Electronic Cuff Checklist, has written several technical papers, and is also a published cartoonist. He lives near JSC with his lovely bride, Helen, and two dynamic daughters, Samantha and Katie.
Alejandro R. Diaz	Alejandro R. Diaz was born in Peru in 1975. He resides in Los Angeles, California since 1985. He has nine-years experience at The Boeing Company supporting the Space Exploration Division, and more recently, Space & Intelligence Systems. During this time, he has been able to see and participate in the day-to-day activities of how manned space vehicles are designed, manufactured, integrated, and launched. As a member of the ISS EVA SCUBA Dive Team, he has been able to dive with the Astronaut-Crew in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) tank at JSC in preparation for ISS Assembly flights. In 2004, he was Commander for Crew 27 at MDRS, and in April 2005, he was awarded the Orange County Engineering Council's (OCEC) 'Young Engineer of the Year Award'. He holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies (focus in space-technology utilization in South America) from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, 2004), an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC, 2001), a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, 1998), and he's a graduate of the International Space University (ISU SSP 2002). Currently, he is pursuing an M.S. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, and a Ph.D. in Astronautical Engineering from USC. His career goals are to apply his professional and academic experience to future human space exploration, and to assist in the development of space technology utilization and space exploration research in Latin America. One of the potential developments that he sees for Latin America is the utilization of the deserts of southern Peru as future Mars Analog research sites (similar to MDRS). On a personal note, he likes to read, swim, play soccer, and travel. He also enjoys spending time with his family, fiancée (Jennifer) and son (Skye), and friends.
Marcus Medley	Marcus Medley is a junior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte majoring in computer engineering. He conducted a research internship during the summers of 2005 and 2006 at the Synchrotron Radiation Center. While there he researched beam break-up instability, which causes loss of the beam in a recirculating energy recovery linear accelerator (linac). He developed programs to automate the testing of linac designs. During the second summer of his research Marcus conducted a study of coherent synchrotron radiation in a free electron laser, testing the proposed design for feasibility. With a lifetime love of science and robotics, he someday hopes to work for NASA in robotics engineering.
Elizabeth Wolfe	Elizabeth Wolfe was born and raised in Colorado Springs. She graduated with honors from Air Academy High School in 2002 and from CU Boulder in 2006, majoring in Geophysics and Astronomy. She spent a year as the "rocket undergrad" and after it successfully launched, she began her own research. She is currently looking at the stresses that formed the concentric and radial wrinkle ridges in Isidis mascon on Mars and presented her results at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston. She was recently hired by an environmental remediation firm called Envirogroup. "We clean up dirty messes made by naughty corporations." Her interests include motorcycles, books, sci-fi, anime, video games, and cooking. She aspires to be an astronaut, but is satisfied with being a run-of-the-mill planetary scientist and Mars fanatic until then.
Pieter Jan Van Asbroeck	Pieter Jan Van Asbroeck is studying in the 2nd Bachelor Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium. He is a paramedic for the ambulance service 'Lifecare Ambulance Maasland', which is responsible for all urgent medical assistance in the region Maasmechelen-Lanklaar-Dilsen-Stokkem. Since 2003, Pieter Jan ("P.J.") has been a volunteer for the Red Cross, assisting with non-urgent medical assistance in the province of Limburg. In the past, he has participated in a number of international space education outreach events and projects. Examples: he contributed in the development of ESA's ISS pilot education kits, attended International Space Camp 2004 in Huntsville, Alabama, is treasurer for the European Association of Aerospace Students, and was a finalist for ESA's 8th Student Parabolic Flight Campaign 2005. P.J. is a enthusiastic space supporter who hopes his experience in Spaceward Bound will "awaken more interest in space and stimulate the European youth to study sciences."
Irene Schneider Puente	Irene Schneider Puente was born in Madrid, Spain. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics (with honors) from the University of South Florida, Tampa, and a Masters of Science from Penn State University. She was Sigma Phi Sigma American Physical Society 1998 "Student of the Year" and completed a research internship at the Fermi National Laboratory in Chicago, Ill. She attended the CERN Particle Accelerator School in Geneva, Switzerland and received a full doctoral research award in the field of Nuclear Physics at the Nuclear Physics Institute in the Netherlands. Irene (pronounced "ee-REH-neh") is now at PSU's Department of Geosciences. In her thesis she researches the Martian surface and subsurface radiation environments and their implications for habitability in collaboration with Professor James Kasting, Dr. Francis Cucinotta of the NASA Johnson Space Center and Jenn Macalady, assistant professor of microbiology at Penn State. She is a member of the NASA Virtual Planetary Laboratory (http://vpl.ipac.caltech.edu/main/), a group of distinguished scientists researching extrasolar planetary habitability. Ms. Schneider has been a public speaker at meetings such as The Advanced Space Suit Symposium at the Mars Society International convention, numerous other scientific conferences and has been invited twice as guest on the Space Show, (http://www.thespaceshow.com/) a world renowned web-based radio show where prominent space personalities are interviewed to discuss current space issues. She was previously a TV broadcaster for Accuweather, where she served the Spanish audience with the US, Puerto Rico and several South American countries. Irene speaks Spanish, English, German and introductory French. She is a member of the American Nuclear Society, The Planetary Society, and The Mars Society. A certified PADI SCUBA diver, Irene enjoys swimming and is an avid snow skier. "But I still can't balance my check book!", Irene admits.

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