All those years of building Legos and Estes rockets and taking apart broken computers and cassette players (not to mention years of engineering school) have finally paid off and I’m getting paid to pretend I’m an astronaut on Mars.
The main research goals of the HI-SEAS program is to investigate crew psychology and cohesion in long duration isolated missions. In addition to these group goals I have several independent research projects. The first is looking at different ways that 3D printing can be used during the mission. While the main component will be making items that are useful around the habitat as well as attempting to replace items that break I’m also interested in how it might be able to help alleviate some of the feeling of isolation by allowing crew members’ friends and family to send items that I can print out and then give to them. Second is using virtual reality to explore ways in which it can be used to help reduce the feelings of confinement that I expect will come from living in less than 1500 sq with five other people for 8 months.
My background is in mechanical and composites engineering. I’ve worked on developing hardware for small scale satellites and aircraft weather instruments as well as modeling and testing of composite aircraft structures.
I previously spent two weeks at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah as a crew engineer with Crew 84 experimenting with construction during EVAs.
I enjoy rock climbing, running, travel, and film, and have begun working towards my private pilot’s license.
Almost Mars 