MarsDrive Executive Team

Chief Executive

Frank Stratford (Melbourne, Australia)

Frank Stratford was born during the closing days of the Apollo era in Australia, a nation without a space program. His interests and skills were focused on the subjects of space exploration since the age of 8 when the space shuttle first started operating. Frank started work at an early age and following 15 years running his own business in landscaping and horticulture he went onto gain senior level management experience within the automotive parts industry with his own company Dynamic Fuel Solutions before moving into the IT sector as Financial Services Compliance Officer at United Electrical Engineering today. Parallel to this he had been active within the non-profit sector leading teams of social workers and acting as a volunteer counsellor and adviser. 

His intense interest in space and Mars lead him to leadership roles at 'Red Colony' and the 'Mars Society' where in 2005 he founded 'MarsDrive' and has been working diligently at overcoming the issues that hold humanity back from a potential  future in space.

Along with organizing for such events as ISDC 2006 and 2007 or lecturing at Mars Society conferences he has also contributed many thought provoking articles on Mars and space exploration, some of which can be found in publications like Australian 'Sky and Telescope', "Metro UK", 'The Space Review' and 'Red Colony'. On the subject of what we can do to get into space Frank has stated, "The future of our expansion into space and onto Mars is really up to each of us as individuals. If there remains no generation to step up to make the decision to go, who will?" As CEO of MarsDrive his vision is to see people everywhere enjoy the wonder of their own space adventures; including such programs as orbital space tourism, a Moon base and a crewed Mars mission and colony within the next two decades.

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MarsDrive U.S.A

Chief Operating Officer/V.P 

Hal E. Fulton 

Hal was born and reared in Mississippi. One of his earliest memories is watching Apollo 8 on television (and, of course, the later missions also). All the members of his family were interested in space (and his father is ex-Air Force), but he caught the bug more than anyone else. He still owns a poster from his older brother, a pre-Mercury era poster entitled "How Man Will Get Into Space and Back Again."

In college, he started as a physics major but eventually switched to computer science. After getting his master's degree, he taught computer science for four years at the community college level. At that point, he moved to Austin, Texas, where he currently resides and works as a computer programmer for a large telecom firm.

He is the author of _The Ruby Way_, now in its second edition, which was the second book in English on the Ruby programming language. He has far too many hobbies, including photography, painting, programming for fun, and writing fiction.

He is determined to do his part to see humans land on Mars within his lifetime.

MarsDrive Director of Engineering:  

Ron Cordes

Ron is president of CFM Inc and a newly retired engineer with extensive experience in propulsion and trajectory simulation. With a Batchelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and graduate studies in systems engineering and engineering management and working on vehicle simulations for NASA's Apollo Program plus decades of executive level management in project software Ron joined the team earlier in 2007 and hopes to help us bring our mission plan from paper to reality in coming years.

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He worked at NASA MSFC Michoud  in Saturn vehicle flight dynamics modeling and trajectory simulation.Simulation work on NERVA (classified).Preliminary conceptual design team, post-Saturn re-usable or inexpensive expendable launch vehicles.

Canadian Director:

Randall Shelaga

Randy Shelaga joined MarsDrive as a Founders Circle member in 2007 and has over twenty years of experience in Aerospace Engineering ranging from the design of flight test installations to structures and systems installations for military aircraft, regional airliners and business jets. Currently, he is the Manager, Airworthiness for SPAR Aerospace Ltd. in Edmonton, Alberta. In his spare time, he enjoys being outdoors looking at the night sky, wondering when man will travel to Mars. As a child, he watched man first orbit the earth and step on the moon, as an adult he shared in the loss of the Challenger and Columbia crews. He is also a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Edmonton Centre). In 1998 when he read "The Case for Mars" this childhood love of astronomy and space exploration was renewed and fast became a passion. This passion has since grown; he was the Chief Engineer and Phase 2 Commander for MSC's Expedition Alpha (MDRS Crew 30) and most recently, Surface Exploration Systems Engineer for Expedition Three. In February 2008, he will Command Expedition Epsilon, the fifth MSC Training Mission. He continues to seek ways to increase his involvement with Mars Analogue Research.

Systems Administrator

Dale Rogers (Australia)

A childhood in rural Texas gave Dale the zest for the great outdoors, a healthy respect of Mother Nature, an ability to survive 100 degrees days and freezing nights in red rocks and an amazing panaroma of the milkyway to contemplate each night.

He attended the University of Texas and the University of North Texas. Completed degrees in Psychology and Anthropology. Almost comitted himself to a forensic anthropology career before CSI and Crime novels made it a glamor job (although, from experience, opening a box of half decayed bones found in the middle of a cornfield and having to bat away flies and dermested beetles certainly didn’t fit his definition of glamor).

Dale met an Australian gal and travelled downunder for a 12 month holiday. That was 10 years, 2 children and a Masters degree ago. He's still living in Oz and has completed a Masters of Public Administration through the Australia New Zealand School of Governments. He is currently employed within the government as a program manager. He divides his time between work, family and advocating for the space industry in Australia

Dale manages the MarsDrive educational site, Kids4Mars and maintains an active interest in the Political Taskforce. He also produces a Mars educational cartoon called little red planet

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European Operations Director: Ryan Curtis

After more nearly two decades in the defence sector working on projects spanning continents and with field assignments in some of the top ten hell holes on planet Earth Ryan departed for pastures new in the immediate aftermath of some Balkan unpleasantness. With strong executive skills he headed into the not-for-profit sector taking his experiences of leadership and motivation, project management and strategy to a whole new audience. 

However, quickly head-hunted by a succession of European quasi-governmental agencies he then spent another decade involved in various national and international liaison roles focussing mainly on his penchant for 'problem solving'. Now, safely back in the not-for-profit sector he makes an honest living in the beautiful Cotswolds. 

Ryan first got interested in ‘space’ during the late 90’s as an adjunct to a longstanding interest in environmental matters. His early space research was in relation to terraforming and "waste minimisation and recycling issues in relation to a closed environment (i.e. a space colony)". Involved with a number of private space groups over recent years Ryan actively joined the Marsdrive team in early 2007 and immediately set about helping restructure the organisation and set up key systems and processes. 

Ryan is currently responsible for directing our European Operations and maintains close links with a team of national coordinators from across the continent.