MDRS Crew 75
Jan. 10, 2009 - Jan. 23, 2009
Daily Crew Reports

Name	Speciality
William Durocher	Commander / Researcher (Psychology)
Nancy Soontiens	Executive Officer / Crew Scientist / Researcher (Martian Dust Pickup)
Nimal Navarathinam	Crew Engineer
Tom Haylock	Crew Roboticist / Assistant Engineer / Researcher (Mars Rover Testing)
Janine Baijinth	Crew Scientist / Crew Journalist / Researcher (Martian Soil Albedo)
Bill Durocher	Crew Doctor / Health and Safety Officer / Crew Biologist

William Durocher	William Durocher is passionate about space exploration. Like many others involved in the MDRS project he was inspired at an early age by the space program. William was also inspired by Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy and by Dr. Robert Zubin's "The Case for Mars". William grew up in subarctic Canada where he enjoyed exploring the wilderness and camping. His passions for exploration and keen interest in leadership activities compelled him to serve as an Infantry Officer in the Canadian Forces from 2005-2009 where he commanded 6 Platoon of The Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada. William's military training included many of the Army's most challenging courses which included the dismounted infantry platoon commander's course and a month long winter warfare and survival course. William graduated from the University of Waterloo where he earned a BA in Economics (2007) and BIS in Entrepreneurial Leadership (2007) he then returned to complete a BA in Psychology (2009). He is currently studying Space Engineering at York University while teaching in the Community Economic and Social Development program as a professor for Northern College. William was heavily involved in leadership, social entrepreneurship and social organizing since high school and in 2003 won the TD Canada Trust scholarship for outstanding community leadership, a national scholarship valued at $60K in 2003. William is a veteran commander of the MDRS having commanded crew 64 in the previous year. This year he hopes to expand upon his own research interest for using emotional intelligence to predict crew social cohesion, and methods to mitigate interpersonal crew stresses under conditions of isolation found in long term space exploration. One of William proudest moments was when he passed his flight test and earned his pilot's license. He loves to fly airplanes and skydive. William hopes to work hard over the next few years and become an aerobatics instructor pilot. William hopes to become an astronaut and command a manned mission to the Moon or Mars. William's highest aspiration is to be a leading member of the first Martian colony and help start a new branch of civilization there.
Nancy Soontiens	Nancy Soontiens is an all around space enthusiast. Her excitement for space is displayed by her active participation in groups such as the Waterloo Space Society and attendance at space-related events such as the 2008 Canadian Space Summit and the 11th Annual Mars Society Convention. Nancy considers herself to be somewhat of a Mars fanatic and enjoys learning all she can about space science. Nancy has always been interested in space but found herself wanting to study Mars in her career after she took several courses in astrophysics and worked as an undergraduate researcher looking at thermal winds on the planet. Nancy graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2008 with a Bachelor of Mathematics, with a physics option and is continuing her education at Waterloo as a Masters student in Applied Mathematics. As an undergraduate she completed a research term investigating thermal winds on Mars and plans to continue with this topic at the graduate level. Her studies focus on the physics of fluid movement and she hopes to apply her work to the Martian atmosphere. Nancy is very active in the student community at Waterloo. In 2008, Nancy was awarded the K. D. Fryer Gold Medal for her outstanding student citizenship and excellence in academic achievement as a graduating mathematics student. She has served has a tutor for several years and is enthusiastic about teaching other students. As an instructor at the University of Waterloo Karate Club she helps develop leaders and inspires her students. She aslo plays trumpet in the Warriors Band, a student run pep band to promote school spirit around campus. As well, Nancy led the explorers of the Waterloo Space Society on a skydiving excursion, one of the most thrilling experiences of her life. Nancy plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and is considering astrophysical fluid dynamics as a research specialisation. Nancy also plans to start a career as a university professor of mathematics to help increase the number of women in a very underrepresented field.
Janine Baijnath	Janine Baijnath is currently an undergraduate in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at York University, Toronto Canada. She is pursuing a B.Sc., Specialist, Honors degree in Earth and Atmospheric Science and a certificate in meteorology. Her field of studies entails conducting fieldwork laboratories for collecting and interpreting data for relevant course materials such as hydrosphere, meteorology, and Earth and Space Geodesy. Janine is an active member of WXCHALLENGE in which she competes with over 1500 other meteorologists in forecasting and predicting the weather conditions for different regions of the United States. She is also a member of York University's Atmospheric Science committee where she learns about meteorological operations at the Weather Network and Environment Canada. Janine often finds herself gazing curiously at the sky and absorbing the tranquility of our massive and serene atmosphere that is often overlooked by others. It is simply a humbling feeling. It gives you another perspective and a deeper appreciation of life. Janine's greatest passion is to understand and explain the phenomena of our physical world and in determining whether other planetary bodies with similar earthlike characteristics can potentially harbor and sustain life elsewhere in the universe. Her academic pursuit has also been characterized by her strong leadership abilities. She was the valedictorian of her graduating grade eight class and also served as Executive Prefect and President of Character Education. She was an active member of the Student Council and attended many leadership conferences pertaining to human rights and youth awareness issues. Being a well rounded individual, Janine has shown remarkable talent in balancing her academic pursuit with a strong zeal for the arts. She is a trained model who has done fashion shows both nationally and internationally. She was also one of the top 20 finalists on the second season premier show of Canada's Next Top Model. Janine is also a trained dancer who competed in several Canadian cities. She loves to stay active by choreographing hip hop dance routines and has appeared in a local and German music video. She loves video editing, playing the keyboard, rollerblading and eating sushi. She hopes to someday be an inspirational role model to youths by making them realize their true potential and encouraging them to always aim for the stars.
William (Bill) Paul Durocher	William (Bill) Paul Durocher is an emergency physician with 25 years experience in emergency and family medicine. He received an undergraduate degree in general science from the University of New Brunswick in 1974 and a Doctorate of Medicine from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1980. Bill's interest in space came early during the moon landings when his brother would launch model rockets. Many of which would explode on the launch pad. Before medicine Bill had an undergraduate interest in geology and aviation. A true generalist Bill has diverse interests, which include medicine, human evolution, environmental science, alternative energy, geology, food production and flying. Sports activities include swimming, kayaking, hiking and an occasional horseback ride. Bill lives with his family on a farm in Northern Ontario, where he keeps a few horses, a windmill and his Cessna 150. He is grateful to his son William who is the commander of this mission and the Mars society for allowing him to share this wonderful human adventure.
Nimal Navarathinam	Nimal Navarathinam began his interests in space exploration while he attended Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Canada. He was part of the Talented Offering of Programs in the Sciences (TOPS) which focused a lot on space based technology and applications. After a few visits from Dr. Garneau himself, Nimal was further inspired to pursue a field in space sciences. This led him to an undergraduate degree in Space Engineering from York University in 2007. Through out his undergraduate years, Nimal developed an extensive theoretical understanding of payload design, space engineering materials, remote sensing, orbital mechanics, and space communication systems. Nimal's strong interest in Mars exploration also led him to work on two projects in his undergraduate years relating to this planet; the first dealt with the feasibility of human settlement and the second developed a subsurface radar to detect water. In the former project, he analyzed landing procedures and theoretical landers to deliver food supplies and other equipment. Nimal worked on the second Mars project during his fourth year of university, where he built a prototype ground penetrating radar. This radar system was designed to be mounted on a rover, where it would be used to detect subsurface ice for extraction. In addition to his educational achievements, Nimal has also been actively involved in extracurricular activities on campus. Nimal was the Vice-President of the Engineering Society at York and was an active volunteer with the York chapter of Engineer's Without Borders (EWB). Nimal was also involved with the International Space University's Space Studies Program in the summer of 2008. Currently, Nimal is a graduate student at York University majoring in Earth and Space Sciences and Engineering. Nimal's research interest at York includes power systems for satellites, Mars exploration missions and robotic manipulators. Currently he is working on helping develop York's first nanosatellite. Nimal is also involved in the Northern Lights project where he is helping develop the robotic manipulator system for a Mars lander in search of life. His other side projects include a robotic arm system for surgery, and a satellite to detect airglow for possible earthquake detection.
Thomas Haylock	Thomas Haylock is an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo in the department of Systems Design Engineering. His course concentrations surround the subjects of Human Factors Engineering and Fluid Dynamics. A major part of the Systems Design program is design projects in which Tom has been involved in constructing a Posture Detecting Chair using EMG technology and a Mars Rover to compete in the Mars Society University Rover Challenge. Additionally, Tom has a Certificate of Web Design from Conestoga College. Throughout Tom's education, he has interspersed academic terms with co-op work terms every four months. He has held a diverse variety of positions including those in Human Systems Integration at Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC)-Toronto, Health and Safety at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, and eBusiness Corporate Marketing at the Bank of Montreal. Tom has a background in technical speaking, recently winning first place at the University of Waterloo's Sandford Fleming Technical Speaking Competition. In addition, he won first place at the Unmanned Vehicle Systems 2008 Conference for a paper and presentation. This award includes a trip to France for the UAS International Conference in June 2009. The paper was written about Tom's development of prototype operator interfaces used in controlling Micro Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Tom's work with the human factors of UAVs is easily extended to rover assistants of the variety expected for use on Mars and the Moon in future manned missions. Tom's passions are aviation and space. He has served as the President of the Waterloo Space Society and is a member of the Canadian Space Society. Tom gets excited about private space entrepreneurship and the idea of bringing space travel within the means of anyone interested. Tom has completed ground school training towards a private pilot's licence and has performed tandem and progressive-freefall skydive jumps. In his spare time he enjoys snowboarding, and computer technology.

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