Melissa Battler

Melissa Battler, born in Kitchener, Ontario, holds an Honours B.Sc. in Earth Sciences from the University of Waterloo, and is working on her M.Sc. in Planetary Geology at the University of New Brunswick's Planetary and Space Science Centre. She is President of The Mars Society Canada and is currently developing a lunar highland regolith simulant for NORCAT and Electric Vehicle Controllers (EVC), Canada, to help validate the design of lunar drilling and excavation equipment for upcoming missions to the Moon. She is also working on developing curriculum and documentation for the NASA/Mars Society "Spaceward Bound" Mars astronaut training program.

During the summer of 2004 she attended NASA Ames Astrobiology Academy, where she became a Science Team member on the NASA Ames Honor Award-winning Mars Drilling Project, MARTE (Mars Analogue Rio Tinto Experiment). She has served on six crews at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah: as Crew Geologist on Expedition One (Mar 2003); as Research Manager/Science Instructor on Expedition Alpha (Dec 2004); as Commander/Science Instructor on Expedition Beta (Feb 2006); as Commander on NASA Spaceward Bound Crew #4 (Jan 2007); as Crew Geologist on Expedition Three (Feb 2007); and as Commander/Geologist for the FMARS 2007 training rotation (Feb/Mar 2007). She plans to continue managing operations of many future Mars analog missions, including commanding the first four-month expedition to the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, FMARS, on Devon Island, Canada (May-Aug 2007).

She is a Canadian Space Agency Student Ambassador, Executive Member of the International Lunar Explorer's Society, Canadian Representative for Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), Advisor to the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) Canada, founder of the Waterloo and Fredericton Space Societies, and a member of both the Association of Mars Explorers and the MDRS Remote Science Team. She enjoys rock-climbing, yoga, hiking, camping, ice-climbing, SCUBA diving, skydiving, traveling, and is working on her pilot's license. Her primary goal is to become an astronaut and to study the surfaces of the Moon and Mars, however she would be almost as happy to train future astronauts, and prepare them for scientific exploration of other planets.

Alan Chan

Brian Enke

John Hickman

Jeff Krukin

Jeff Krukin is the Executive Director of The Space Frontier Foundation and is an international speaker, writer, analyst, and award-winning leader concerned with commercial space development, space settlement, and The Human-Space ConnectionTM. During his undergraduate studies in Psychology and Sociology at The George Washington University, Jeff became interested in how resource constraints contribute to global conflict. This lead to the Studies of the Future graduate program at the University of Houston/Clear Lake, where he studied space resources and deepened his belief that space settlement and development are necessary for prosperity, liberty and peace.

Jeff 's first space article was published in 1981, the year he completed his graduate internship at NASA Headquarters and became an IBM Systems Engineer at NASA's Johnson Space Center. In the early-1990's he began speaking at conferences about the settlement and development of space. Combining his passions for space and writing, in the early 1990's he wrote a monthly column entitled "Think About It," which appeared for several years in the Journal for Space Development and other space newsletters. He has also been published in Space News, the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Business Journal, and on websites such as Spacedaily.com and Betterhumans.com. Chelsea House will publish his first book essays, specifically written for high school students, in a multi-author collection in Spring 2005. Jeff is also a noted conference speaker and has been interviewed on radio and television news programs.

Bart Leahy

Bart Leahy earned a master’s degree in Technical Writing from the University of Central Florida, where his master's thesis suggested using targeted marketing to enhance the appeal of space exploration messages. As a volunteer writer for NSS, he has developed presentations, marketing collateral, and a position paper on space tourism.

He was also volunteer coordinator for the 2005 ISDC in Washington, D.C., and has written several articles about the 2006 ISDC for Ad Astra magazine and chaired the Public Outreach track at the recent ISDC 2007. He now works as a technical-writing contractor for the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. Non-Fiction Reviews: In the Shadow of the Moon (movie), Mining the Sky, Rocket Man, Utilization of Space. Fiction reviews: Children of God, Red Mars, The Sparrow, Variable Star.

Don Rapp

After receiving his B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering, he received a Ph. D. in chemical physics at Berkeley and worked as a researcher in chemical physics for a number of years, amassing a considerable number of publications becoming involved in solar energy engineering while in Texas and phased out of chemical physics soon thereafter. He came to NASA JPL in 1979 to take a position as the Division Technologist (senior technical person) in the Mechanical and Chemical Systems Division At JPL, he has been a pioneer in pointing the institution toward new technologies.

After 1994, he contributed advances in materials, propulsion, composite structures, inflatable and membrane structures, analysis of alternate designs for cooling IR observatories in space, Mars rock distribution analysis, conversion of the Mars atmosphere to propellants, planning for Mars Sample Return missions, and general system engineering for new flight missions, which led to a number of publications and new technology releases. Over the 1994-1998 period, he was Proposal Manager on the Genesis (formerly Suess-Urey) Discovery Project. Genesis carried out its mission in space from 2001 to 2004. After that, he played a major role in putting together the OMEGA MIDEX proposal ($139M) in 1998. Subsequently, he acted as Proposal Manager for the Deep Impact Discovery proposal, which won, bringing in about $320M to JPL. Deep Impact was a spectacular success in 2005.

In the period 2004-2005, Don concentrated on planning for Mars (and to a lesser extent, lunar) human missions, including:
(1) assessment, comparison and evaluation of existing "design reference missions,"
(2) assessment of the potential impact of in situ resource utilization (ISRU) on Mars missions,
(3) review of the whole field of existing water on Mars and its potential impact on Mars ISRU, and
(4) requirements, options and characterization of alternatives for transfers from Earth to and from Mars and the Moon.

William Watson

William Watson is presently Executive Director of the Space Frontier Foundation (SFF). He endeavors to create new business relationships for the Foundation and to communicate their vision. He is also serving as Chair of their annual NewSpace conference. This year the conference takes place in Washington DC, from July 17-19. Will chaired NewSpace 2007 in D.C. and was part of the SFF's management team during NewSpace 2006 in Vegas. Will received his Master's in Space Management from the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, France. The year long MSM graduate program focused on aerospace business, marketing and law. Prior to ISU, Mr. Watson received a BA in Russian Literature & History from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He has studied in Moscow at Lomonosov University and as part of the Institute for Biomedical Problems' Summer space program. We will be endeavouring to work closely with William and the Space Frontier Foundation to formulate economically sound strategies for a human future in space and on Mars.