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Meet The Mars Pathfinder Scientists

Robert Anderson
Jeff Barnes
Jim Bell
Nathan Bridges
Dan Britt
Dave Crisp
Dale Ferguson
Matt Golombek
Robert Hargraves
Phil Jenkins
Uwe Keller
Joe Kolecki
Geoffrey Landis
Justin Maki
Brain Muirhead
Harry McSween
Henry Moore
Jim Murphy
Carol Stoker
Greg Wilson

Matt Golombek - Mars Pathfinder Project Scientist
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Dr. Matthew Golombek has been Project Scientist for the Mars Pathfinder project since January 1994.

Matt Golombek's Resume

Matt Golombek's Biography

Robert Anderson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Robert C. Anderson

Robert Anderson's Resume

Jeffrey Barnes
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences
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Jeffrey R. Barnes, an Associate Professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, carries out research focusing upon the atmosphere of Mars. Dr. Barnes has been involved with Mars studies since the Viking mission in 1976, and is currently a member of the Mars Pathfinder ASI/MET Science Team and is a Participating Scientist on the 1998 Mars Surveyor Orbiter mission.

Jeffrey Barnes' Biography

Jim Bell - Senior Research Associate
Cornell University
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Dr. James Bell is actively involved in the planning, calibration, and analysis of data sets from the Mars Global Surveyor mission, Mars-96/98, Mars Pathfinder, the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, Clementine, and Rosetta.

Jim Bell's Resume

Nathan Bridges
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Dr. Nathan Bridges works with Dr. Matthew Golombek supporting planning, operations, and science data analysis for the Mars Pathfinder project. He also studies Venus, the seafloor, and terrestrial volcanology that had begun in graduate school.

Nathan Bridges' Resume

Dan Britt
University of Arizona

Dr. Daniel Britt is the Project Manager and Co-Investigator of the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) Instrument.

Dan Britt's Resume

Dave Crisp
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dr. David Crisp is a Research Scientist in the Earth and Space Sciences Division at JPL and the Chief Scientist of NASA's New Millennium Program. He received his Ph.D. in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics from Princeton University in 1984. There, he specialized in atmospheric physics and studied the thermal balance of the middle atmosphere of Venus. He has continued to contribute to that field by developing efficient, accurate radiative transfer models that provide comprehensive descriptions of the solar and thermal radiation fields in scattering, absorbing, emitting, planetary atmospheres. These radiative transfer models are currently being used to investigate the thermal structures, compositions, and dynamics of the atmospheres of Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune.

David Crisp's Biography

Dale Ferguson
NASA Lewis Research Center
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Dr. Dale C. Ferguson is the Principal Investigator on one of the Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover technology experiments, the Wheel Abrasion Experiment, or WAE. He is the Deputy for Space Environments in the Photovoltaics and Space Environments Branch at the NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveleand, Ohio. Dr. Ferguson is also Astronomy Instructor and Director of the Burrell Memorial Observatory at Baldwin-Wallace College, in Berea, Ohio. He has published a college textbook, "Introductory Astronomy Exercis es", through Wadsworth Publishing Co., Belmont, California.

Dale Ferguson's Biography

Robert Hargraves
Princeton University
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Dr. Robert Hargraves - Born of U.S. parents in South Africa in 1928; studied at the University of Natal, South Africa (B.Sc. Hons. 1949, M.Sc. 1952) and Princeton University (Ph.D. 1959). Engaged in mineral exploration in Africa and North America, 1949-54; U.S. Army 1954-56. Was a Research Fellow in the Economic Geology Research Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, from 1959-61. Joined Princeton faculty as Petrologist in the fall of 1961 (as Assistant Professor). Promoted to Professor as of July 1, 1971, and Emeritus July 1, 1994.

Robert Hargraves' Home Page

Phil Jenkins
NASA Lewis Research Center

Phillip Jenkins is the cognitive engineer for the MAE solar cell experiment aboard Sojourner. The MAE solar cell experiment uses a shape memory alloy to periodically remove a cover glass from in front of a solar cell. As dust settles out of the Martian atmosphere it collects on the cover glass blocking light to the solar cell. By measuring the solar cell current with and without the cover glass in front of the cell, a measure of how much light is blocked by the dust is obtained. This experiment will help define the requirements for future solar powered Mars missions. The MAE solar cell experiment will help to size solar panels and determine the need for dust removal technology for future Mars missions.

Phil Jenkins' Biography

Uwe Keller
Max-Planck Instistude For Aeronautics
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Dr. Uwe Keller's main field of research includes the physics of comets, stellar evolution and atmospheres, interplanetary matter (gas and dust), radiative transfer, planetary atmospheres, atmosphere-surface interaction.

Uwe Keller's Resume

Joe Kolecki
NASA Lewis Research Center

Joe Kolecki's association with Mars Pathfinder is through H. Moore's soil mechanics group. Specifically, Kolecki works with the Wheel Abrasion Experiment and rover electrostatic charging.

Joe Kolecki's Biography

Geoffrey Landis
Ohio Aerospace Institute
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Geoffrey A. Landis is a scientist with the Ohio Aerospace Institute on permanent assignment to the Photovoltaics Branch of the N.A.S.A. Lewis Research Center. He has published over a hundred scientific papers in the fields of photovoltaics, power systems for space, and astronautics (see list), holds four patents on photovoltaic device designs, and organized and served as the technical chairman of the Vision-21 symposium on advanced concepts. His work on the Pathfinder project involves understanding the effect of Martian dust on the solar energy reaching the surface of Mars (see the Solar Energy on Mars web page, and learning how much dust deposits on the solar arrays.

Geoffrey Landis' Biography

Justin Maki
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Dr. Justin Maki is a member of the Mars Pathfinder Imaging team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he designs, develops, and writes the image command sequences for the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP). He also writes image processing and analysis software for use in Pathfinder mission operations and image analysis.

Justin Maki's Biography

Brian Muirhead
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
muirhead.gif Brian Muirhead has worked on various spacecraft and technology projects since coming to JPL in 1978. His first job was building flight hardware on the Galileo spacecraft now in orbit around Jupiter. He managed the Advanced Spacecraft Development Group and the Mechanical Systems Integration Section. He has led three of JPL's recent "faster, better, cheaper" developments: the SIR-C Antenna Mechanical System (which flew on STS 59 and 68), the MSTI I Mechanical Subsystems, launched in 1992 and most recently the Mars Pathfinder flight system which landed successfully on Mars on July 4, 1997. On Mars Pathfinder he was responsible for the design, development, test and launch of the flight system. He is currently the Project Manager for Mars Pathfinder. In addition, he manages the Deep Space 4/Champollion Project designing a mission to land on, analyze in situ and return to Earth a sample from a comet. He has a BSME from the University of New Mexico and an MSAE from Caltech.

Harry McSween
University of Tennessee
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Dr. McSween's responsibilities as member of the science team for Mars Pathfinder include participation in the selection of the rocks to be analyzed by the Sojourner rover and mineralogic and petrologic interpretation of APXS data for rocks and soils. He also serves on the science team for the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which will begin mapping the Martian surface from orbit in early 1998.

Harry McSween's Biography

Henry Moore
U.S. Geological Survey

Dr. Henry Moore is the Rover Scientist and Leader of the Surface Material Properties Science Operation Group for the Mars Pathfinder Mission and engaged in geologic mapping of Venus and Mars.

Henry Moore's Resume

Jim Murphy
San Jose State University Foundation
Dr. Jim Murphy is currently a Research Associate with the San Jose State University Foundation in San Jose, CA. Murphy's office, and the location where he conducts his research activities, is at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay. Murphy received a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, in 1991. His research activities, in addition to being a Mars Pathfinder ASI/MET Science Team member, involve numerical modelling of the martian atmosphere, especially with aspects related to Mars' atmospheric dust cycle. Jim Murphy is married and has three children, ages 8, 5, and 1.

Carol Stoker
NASA Ames Research Center
Dr. Carol Stoker is a planetary scientist in the Space Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. She recieved her Ph.D in AstroGeophysics from the University of Colorado in 1983. At NASA since 1985, she has done theoretical and experimental research on a variety of problems related to the origin, evolution, and search for life in the solar system. She is actively involved in planning for robotic and human exploration of Mars. Since 1990, Carol has led a NASA Ames project to develop telepresence and virtual reality technology for mission operations and scientific visualization to enhance control of mobile rovers on the surfaces of other planets. This work has focused on using telepresence-controlled scientific exploration vehicles to perform field studies of space-analog environments on the Earth. She is currently a participating scientist on Mars Pathfinder where she has provided a three-dimensional interactive virtual reality model of the Pathfinder landing site as an enhancement to science operations. Carol previously worked with the Voyager imaging team for the twelve year mission of exploration of the outer solar system where she studied the atmospheres of the outer planets.

Greg Wilson
Arizona State University
Dr. Gregory Wilson is a member of the Mars Pathfinder ASI/MET facility instrument science team. He has been actively involved in the development, testing, and operation of the ASI/MET weather station and the IMP windsock experiment. In addition to his mission planning and data analysis roles, Dr. Wilson is investigating the heat and momentum flux in the near surface boundary layer on Mars. While not working on Mars Pathfinder, he is responsible for the daily operation of the Planetary Aeolian Laboratory at NASAs Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. This facility is home to several unique wind tunnels capable of simulating aeolian/fluid mechanics environments on Earth, Mars, and Venus. You can visit the lab's WWW page at http://cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/Aeolian/aeolian.html.

 


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