April Andreas, Ph.D. – Systems / Industrial Engineer
April holds a Ph.D. in Systems and Industrial Engineering from the University of Arizona, as well as M.S. and B.S. degrees in Mathematics from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She has experience structuring and implementing innovative solutions to challenging project management problems. April assisted 4Frontiers in the areas of requirements definition and industrial engineering for the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study.
Sheryl Bishop, Ph.D. – Social Psychologist
Sheryl is a Social Psychologist, Associate Professor and Director for the Space Life Sciences Ph.D. curriculum in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas. She is also a faculty at the International Space University, Strasbourg, France. Since 1990, Dr. Bishop has investigated human performance and group dynamics in teams in extreme environments, including deep cavers, mountain climbers, desert survival groups, polar expeditioners and Antarctic winter-over groups and various simulations of isolated, confined environments for space. She has participated in various television documentaries and is published in both the medical and psychological fields on topics as diverse as psychometric assessment, research methodology, outcomes research, psychosocial group dynamics and human performance in extreme environments. Sheryl assisted 4Frontiers in the areas of group dyanamics and psychology for the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study. She also assisted in the creation of material for the company’s Mars-themed education package.
Frank Boehm CAD Draftsman and Nanomaterial Specialist
Frank has worked for 17 years as a Mechanical Draftsman and Senior Mechanical Designer for ATS (Automation Tooling Systems) of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. He assisted with the creation and development of dedicated tooling and machinery, which were interfaced with robotics, for use in complex automated assembly systems.
He has been involved with Nanotechnology and especially Nanomedicine since ~1996, when he initiated the development of concepts and designs for near-term (~3 to 5 years) and longerterm (~10 to 20 years) Nanomedical components, devices, and systems. Frank is currently collaborating with a number of researchers from various Universities, having the aim of developing these concepts into beneficial and robust real-world medical platforms. These Nanomedical devices and systems might have potential applications when integrated into an onboard medical suite for spacecraft, and may provide a wider range of portable and compact diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities for medical facilities within a permanent Mars habitat.
To date, Frank has written over 500 pages as relates to his Nanomedical concepts. Frank currently works as an independent Nanotech consultant under the moniker NanoApps Consulting, and has signed with CRC Press to generate a book that will explore Nanomedical component, device, and systems design issues.
Frank assisted 4Frontiers with creation of CAD renderings for the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study.
Grant Bonin Space Mission Planner
Grant holds a degree in aerospace engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His space-related work experience has principally concerned human lunar and Mars mission designs using smaller launch vehciles; launch vehicle economics; and combinations of chemical and solar electric propulsion systems for large and small interplanetary missions. He has specialized in orbital mechanics; space systems design; nuclear engineering; and biomechanics. Grant was a project manager for the 2006-2007 Carleton University AEGIS student microsatellite project. Grant assisted 4Frontiers in the area of mission planning for the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study.
Dr. Ben Bova – Author
The author of more than 115 futuristic novels and nonfiction books, Dr. Ben Bova has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space age. President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, Dr. Bova received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, for fueling mankind’s imagination regarding the wonders of outer space. His 2006 novel TITAN received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. His internet web site is www.benbova.com. Read his full bio here.
Michael Carroll – Artist & Editor
Michael has been an astronomical artist and science writer for over two decades. He has done work for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His art has appeared in several hundred magazines throughout the world, including TIME, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, SKY & TELESCOPE, ASMIOV’S, SMITHSONIAN, ASTRONOMY, CIEL ET ESPACE, ANALOG, OMNI, and ODYSSEY. Mike is a Fellow and founding member of the International Association for the Astronomical Arts. One of his original paintings flew aboard the space station MIR. Mike and his wife, Caroline, have coauthored nearly twenty children’s books. Mike organized and coauthored the science fiction anthology Eat My Martian Dust, and is currently working on Alien Volcanoes (John Hopkins University Press) and several other titles for both adults and children.
Jim Denney – Author
Jim is a fulltime writer with over 70 published books to his credit. His books include Quit Your Day Job! How to Sleep Late, Do What You Enjoy, and Make a Ton of Money As a Writer (Quill Driver, 2003; a Writer’s Digest Book Club Selection) and the four book Timebenders science fiction series for young readers (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002): Battle Before Time, Doorway to Doom, Invasion of the Time Troopers, and Lost in Cydonia. Jim has also collaborated with celebrity authors on numerous books including Super Bowl champion Reggie White (In the Trenches: The Autobiography), Super Bowl champion quarterback Bob Griese (Undefeated), Supermodel Kim Alexis (A Model for a Better Future), Star Trek actress Grace Lee Whitney (The Longest Trek), and Orlando Magic co-founder and vice president Pat Williams (Go For the Magic, The Magic of Teamwork, The Paradox of Power, Coaching Your Kids to Be Leaders, and The Warrior Within). Jim also contributed two space-oriented SF stories (“Tin Man” and “Shipwreck Planet”) to the young readers SF collection Eat My Martian Dust. He is a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
“I discovered science fiction and space travel when I was five years old,” Jim Denney says. “That’s when I became hooked on a 1950s TV space opera called Space Patrol. By the time I was nine or ten, I was reading all the adult SF I could get my hands on. The books I loved most in those days are still my favorites todayespecially Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. Robotic space exploration has only increased my fascination with Destination Mars. When I was a boy, watching the rapid advances of the NASA space program, I had no doubt I’d get to walk the sands of Mars myself someday. In the intervening years, NASA lost its way, but I’ve never lost my love for Mars. Today, I don’t expect to ever physically reach Mars, but I do intend to go there in spirit. And that’s why I’m looking forward to involvement with 4Frontiers. I’m a storyteller, not a scientist, though I consider myself a scientifically literate layman. I’m looking forward to blending my abilities and imagination with the considerable knowledge and talent base at 4Frontiers. My thanks to Marianne Dyson and Brian Enke for encouraging me to come aboard.”
Marianne Dyson – Author
Inspired by the Apollo program and science fiction, Marianne Dyson earned a degree in physics and became one of NASAs first ten women flight controllers. Dyson left NASA to raise her children, and now shares her passion for space through writing and speaking. She won the 2000 Golden Kite Award for Space Station Science (Scholastic, Windward) and the 2004 American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award for Home on the Moon (National Geographic). A member of SFWA and SCBWI, Dyson’s articles, stories, poems, and activities have appeared in numerous publications including Analog Science Fiction and Odyssey magazines; and Best of Girls to the Rescue (Meadowbrook) and Eat My Martian Dust (Baker) anthologies. Dyson has appeared on C-SPAN2 and Reading is Fundamental, and was a science advisor for Scholastics Space University series for which she wrote Stars and Galaxies in 2004. She designs and edits the annual program book and serves as webmaster for the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation (http://www.rnasa.org/) and is a science consultant for Enslow Publishing. Her next book is a historical reference, Space and Astronomy: Decade by Decade, that will be published by Facts on File in 2007. Dyson serves on the National Space Society’s policy committee and leads the “Reading Space” section of their website. Hoping to keep in shape for future space travel, Dyson earned a black belt in Kuk Sool, and continues training in Houston. For more information, visit http://www.mariannedyson.com/.
Brian Enke – Author
Brian is a Research Analyst in the Department of Space Studies at the Southwest Research Institute. Brian holds a M.S. degree in Computer Science from Northwestern University, specializing in software algorithms and Artificial Intelligence. He is also the published author of Shadows of Medusa, a mystery/thriller novel about near-future Mars exploration. Brian has given conference presentations on Mars science and economics, public outreach, and low-budget Mars settlement strategies. He is also a mentor for the Nederland High School robotics team in Nederland, Colorado.
Tom Hill – Author
An aerospace engineer by education, Tom Hill’s experience covers the spectrum of military and civil space efforts. During active duty and reserve service in the Air Force, he’s worked in satellite control centers, at space and missile warning sites, within launch control bunkers leading final efforts for a satellite launch, and supporting headquarters efforts to procure the latest weather satellites. His assignments included locations in Colorado, Turkey, California, and Washington DC. In the civilian world, Tom works as a contractor on America’s geostationary weather satellites, part of the team taking the craft through design, launch and operations preparation, and on-orbit testing. He’s also been busy within the space activism community, leading multiple projects for The Mars Society, and writing two books. Tom lives in suburban Washington with his wife and two children.
Vernon Kramer Mining & Geology Expert
Vernon holds a B.S. in Mining Engineering from Texas Western College and an M.S. in Geology from the University of Texas at El Paso. His work in mining and exploration spans 30 years and his work experience extends from the underground miner with dynamite in one hand and a pick in the other to managing international exploration offices overseeing multiple million dollar budgets. He has conducted multi-national exploration in Asia, including Afghanistan, Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia, as well as in both North and South America, for metallic and non-metallic commodities such as limestone, gold, oil and gas, copper, and uranium, to name a few. Coming full circle, he now works to motivate and educate the next generation of scientists and engineers, as a professor of Geology at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. Veron recently served as commander of the 2009 FMARS expedition. He also assisted 4Frontiers in the areas of geology and mining engineering for the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study and assisted in creation of content for the company’s education package.
Bobbi McCutcheon – Author
Bobbi is a published fiction and non-fiction author and works as a writer, designer, and freelance graphic artist. She is the coauthor of The Facts on File Marine Science Handbook; Facts On File Pioneers in Sciencee, Space and Astronomy, the People Behind the Science; and the science fiction adventure Father mars, Mother Earth. She has lived in Alaska for many years as a wife to her coauthor, Scott, and is a mother to three sons.
Roshanak Nilchiani, Ph.D. – Mission Planning Expert
Roshanak Nilchiani is a Research Assistant Professor of Systems Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. She is pursuing research on System of Systems testing and evaluation and Systems Readiness Levels (SRLs). She received her Ph.D. is Aerospace Systems from MIT in 2005 focusing on flexible space systems design and architecture. Dr. Nilchiani is the author of many articles in the area of space systems and has collaborated with various research groups on the next generation Mars Rovers, and nuclear-powered Mars missions. In addition, she has provided technical advice for space mission analysis and planning to various companies in the past few years and has also served as a technical advisor to S2L, a start-up science fiction movie company. Roshanak assisted 4Frontiers in the area of mission planning in the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement study.
Nathan Owen-Going, Ph.D. – Agricultural Systems Expert
Nathan obtained his degrees in Agriculture (BSc) and Environmental Biology (MSc and PhD) from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He has worked with numerous plant pathogens and crops of greenhouse and controlled environment systems utilizing both soil and hydroponic media. As an epidemiologist, his early work has helped to develop and evaluate novel technologies to increase water and nutrient use efficiency in self-sustaining hydroponic systems. A useful byproduct of this early work was the statistical extension of results from benchtop experiments to applications on a commercial scale, enhancing information transfer from the lab to practical applications. Later, Nathan’s biochemical host-pathogen interaction work devloped a greater understanding of the role of phenolic and isoprenoid metabolites not only in the evolution of disease simptoms, but also in the generation of abiotic stresses in hydroponically-grown crops. In short, Nathan’s graduate work led to the development of abiotic and biotic technologies to sterilize or filter water and to manipulate populations of beneficial microorganisms in the root zone to enhance plant health and productivity. On Terra, these technologies have proven essential in increasing the environmental compliance of hydroponic operations in Leamington, Ontario (Canada) which is North America’s fastest growing hydroponic community. Nathan has served on several committees for the Canadian Phytopathological Society. He currently works in Ottawa for the Canadian government as a fertilizer efficacy evaluator specializing in microbial supplements and moonlights as an independent agricultural and life sciences consultant. He assisted 4Frontiers in the area of agricultural engineering for the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study and assisted in creation of content for the company’s education package.
Joseph Palaia, III Water, Wastewater and Waste Management Expert
Joseph holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Arizona State University. He started his career more than 30 years ago in the field of Air Pollution Control dealing with coal mining operations and rock quarries for industrial clients. Joe also brings more than 28 years of experience in studies, design, construction and project management, with a large environmental consulting firm, specializing in water, watewater treatment plant design, and solid waste disposal projects for large municipal clients. Joseph assisted 4Frontiers in the area of water and wastewater systems design for the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study.
Jim Pass, Ph.D. – Astrosociology Expert
Jim Pass received his doctorate in sociology at the University of Southern California in 1991. At the time, his interests and substantive area exams focused on deviance and political economy. He has taught at Long Beach State, and is currently holds a position at Long Beach City College in California. Dr. Pass founded the field of Astrosociology, a new field of study focused upon the social ramifications of space exploration. He continues to pursue pioneering research in this field, and to teach others of the importance of it to future society. Jim assisted 4Frontiers in the area of psychology / astrosociology in the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study.
Pablo Rivera Jimenez – Aquaculture Systems Expert
Pablo grew up in a small mining town in Colima state, México. The pollution of the town’s river by a local iron mine led to an early interest in aquatic organisms. He attended technical school in Colima, studying Technical Chemistry in 1987. In 1994, he received a bachelors degree in Oceanology, specialized in biology. During this time period, he traveled to the United States to visit the Scripps Institute, which influenced his passion for marine sciences.
Back in México, he worked as an independent technician in environmental impact studies until 1997, when he and two others founded the company Acuícola S.A. This company is focused on environmental studies, as well as aquaculture projects in Colima, and in the rest of Mexico. His has worked with fish farms in diverse locations through Mexico, primarily focusing on tilapia and white shrimp in freshwater. He has also recently joined others specialists to search for new methods of generating dissolved oxygen in culture ponds. Besides managing his company, he works as an independent contractor with the University of Colima and with various other farms. Pablo assisted 4Frontiers in the area of aquaculture systems design for the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study.
Rebecca Rowe – Author
Rebecca is a science fiction author and freelance writer living and working in Colorado. Her debut science fiction novel, Forbidden Cargo, has just been published in the United States and Canada. It has received critical acclaim from newspapers such as The Washington Post. Rowe also writes science poetry and short stories, inspired by her overseas travels and her more frequent armchair explorations at the keyboard. With a Master’s in Mass Communications/Journalism from the University of Denver and a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Southern California, her fiction reflects a hard social science dimension. She is a member of the Mars Society, the National Space Society and the Denver Woman’s Press Club.
Kristin Showalter
Kristin is a graduating senior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where she is finishing a B.S. in Engineering Physics with a minor in Mathematics. She has worked as a research assistant in the ERAU Physical Sciences department, using Matlab to analyze magnetosphere data and auroral activity, and has co-authored a paper on this study with Dr. James Wanliss. She interned at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, designing and developing a procedure to extract DNA and proteins from simulant regolith in preparation for application to the Microarray Assay for Solar System Exploration (MASSE) project a method for detecting extraterrestrial microbial life. Kristin also served as member and team leader of the Attitude Determination and Control team of Project EagleEye and the Embry-Riddle Satellite Development Group. She is currently employed part-time with the Boeing Company in the Fluids and Propulsions Department at Kennedy Space Center. She has co-presented at the 2006 Space Generation Congress, the 2004 Geospace Environment Modeling workshop, and the 2004 Mars Astrobiology Science and Technology workshop. Kristin assisted 4Frontiers in the areas of Mars surface transportation and alternative energy systems for the company’s Generation II Mars Settlement Study.
Jim Swope – Public Relations Counselor
Jim has provided services to a wide range of clients through Swope Public Relations in Clearwater, Florida, since 1990. For 12 years prior to that, he held communications management positions with for-profit companies, non-profit organizations, and with advertising and public relations agencies. He has placed stories for clients in media ranging from local newspapers to international wire services, and in such trade publications as Aviation Week & Space Technology, Aerospace Engineering and Design News, in consumer publications such as Popular Science, and on programs including CNN’s Health Week, Headline News and Science & Technology Week.
John Truett – Research Consultant
John holds a BSc degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from the University of Florida. He is currently working on his ME in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Florida and plans to graduate in the spring of 2009. His primary areas of focus are in greenhouse design and relative humidity control in low pressure environments. Over the summer of 2008, he worked with 4Frontiers to help develop Mars simulation design concepts and to study greenhouse materials. He was supported via the 2008 NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Internship Program, in coordination with Florida Space Grant Consortium. John is currently assisting the company with the pursuit of several research grants, and is assisting with the company’s Mars greenhouse materials testing research.
