MDRS Crew 69
March 16, 2008 - March 29, 2008
Daily Crew Reports

Name	Speciality
Emily Colvin	Commander, Radiation Specialist
Sean Blackman	Health & Safety Officer, Public Affairs, Journalist
Dan Crowley	Executive Officer, Robotics Specialist
Andrew Flett	Mission Support
Andrea Hartlage	Communication Specialist, Public Affairs
Andrew Herron	Mission Support
Megan Pendleton	Mission Support Lead, Logistics
Tulika Raj	Science Specialist
Elisha Sanders	Crew Engineer, Robotics Specialist

Emily Colvin	Emily Colvin is a Nuclear and Radiological Engineering (NRE) student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She will graduate in 2009 with a Master's of Science in NRE, with her thesis work in the characterization and modeling of radiation environments in the Canadian Arctic, the Utah desert, and on Mars. A 2006 Summer Fellow at the Center for Space Nuclear Research, she has also worked in nuclear thermal propulsion. Emily is a founding member of the Mars Society at Georgia Tech (MSGT) and has served as its secretary and executive officer (president). Through MSGT, she has been a member of three crews to the Mars Desert Research Station (Crew 37 as Mission Support Lead, Crew 47 as Executive Officer and IT Specialist, and Crew 60 as Commander) and the 2007 FMARS Long Duration Mission (and the MDRS Crew 58 training mission) as a crew engineer alternate. Through the Engineering Team, Emily has been involved in the controls and systems monitoring of the Station as well as miscellaneous maintenance and repair.
Sean Blackman	Originally from Fayetteville, GA, Sean Blackman has come back to Atlanta after four years in Annapolis, MD at the United States Naval Academy where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering in May 2007. A first year graduate student in the Aerospace Department, Sean is focusing his studies in Optimization Techniques in Orbital Trajectories. Previously, he has interned at Johnson Space Center in the Office of Astronauts where he helped write a Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) Pilot Performance code. While at Navy, he performed a similar function while working on the MIcro Dosimeter InstrumeNt (MIDN), a real-time radiation detection device for astronauts. Outside of academics, he has made the most of his college experience by pursuing athletic and leadership interests. A four-time letter winner for Navy's Varsity Men's Gymnastics, he captained the team his senior year and is now an officer in the Navy. After graduating from GA Tech, he will report to flight school to become a Naval Aviator.
Dan Crowley	Dan Crowley is a graduate student in the Aerospace Systems Design Lab at Georgia Tech, pursuing a Ph. D. in Aerospace Engineering. He has already obtained a Masters in A.E. from Georgia Tech in addition to his B.S. in A.E. from the University of Notre Dame. In addition to engineering, Dan works part-time at the Georgia Tech Craft Center, which gives him a chance to learn new skills and work with his hands whenever possible. During the time spent in college and graduate school, Dan has picked up a number of skills that will have absolutely no bearing on his professional future, including SCUBA training, swing dancing, juggling, breathing fire, and some pilot training. He hopes to go into mission design and preliminary aircraft and/or spacecraft design after finishing his formal education.
Andrew Flett	Andrew Flett is an undergraduate at Georgia Tech studying Aerospace Engineering. He plans to receive his Bachelor's is spring of 2009 and then attend graduate school to pursue his Phd. Andrew is originally from Roanoke, Virginia where he attended Virginia Western Community College and earned Associates degrees in Math and Engineering before transferring to Georgia Tech. He is a student member of the SAE and the AIAA and founded the student chapter of the SAE while attending Virginia Western. He is currently working as a TA in the Georgia Tech Physics department.
Andrea Hartlage	Andrea Hartlage is a first-year undergraduate student majoring in Aerospace Engineering. She has been fascinated with airplanes since her first commercial jet trip as an infant, but her interest was again piqued when she received a scholarship to space camp the summer before her junior year of high school. It was then that she began considering aviation as a career; senior year she did an independent study course on aviation and interned at a local airport. After going back to space camp for a second time, she decided that she wanted to be an astronaut. As a ham radio operator since age 11, she's gained experience in a variety of areas but has focused most of her energy on involving youth in ham radio, travelling to ham radio conventions around the country to encourage youth involvement. Her efforts landed her a full scholarship to the school of her choice, and she chose to attend Georgia Tech. Future plans include co-oping, hopefully with NASA, and attending graduate school to earn a Master's and PhD. Her ultimate career goal is still to be an astronaut. Other interests include writing, Georgia Teen Institute, the Georgia Tech Amateur Radio Club, and her most recent initiative of starting an on campus non-drinking group.
Andrew Herron	Andrew Herron wants very much to be an astronaut, rocket scientist, and high school physics teacher and is doing his darndest to achieve those goals. Fresh out of his fourth place finish at the International Science and Engineering Fair in 2003, he left his home in rural York, Pennsylvania to pursue a BS in Space Science/Astronomy and Astrophysics and a minor in Science Education at the Florida Institute of Technology in sunny Melbourne, Florida. While there he filled his free time with being president of the FloridaTech pep band, Relay for Life committee, running XC, playing in the community band, orchestra, and swing band, and SEM, STM, and computational molecular modeling research in the chemistry department. During the summer of 2006 he ventured to the Marshall Space Flight Center with the NASA Academy internship program to do high energy astrophysics research in gamma-ray classification using data from CGRO/BATSE. He returned in 2007 to serve as MSFC Academy Operations Manager. In fall of 2007 he moved a state north by perusing an MS in Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology doing research in the Aerospace Systems Design Lab. While in Atlanta he fills his free time with GT Christian Campus Fellowship, the Yellow Jacket Flying Club, and looking for a new musical outlet to play his clarinet, tenor sax, or ukulele. In the short term he will be participating in a co-op program at NASA/MSFC and hopes to continue work there as a NASA civil servant upon graduation from GeogriaTech, at least until he is selected to join the astronaut corps. The biggest influences on his life are his family, the Boy Scouts of America, music, and his relationship with Christ.
Megan Pendleton	Megan Pendleton is a first year Aerospace Engineering student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She was born and raised in Austin, Texas. She aspires to work for NASA someday and is looking to intern/co-op with them in the upcoming semesters. Megan is a certified ASEL private pilot, and has a passion for flying. She is a new member of the Mars Society and Flying Club at Georgia Tech, and is also a member of the Women's club volleyball team, Freshman Council, and Alpha Chi Omega Fraternity. Outside of school she loves to play sand volleyball and run.
Tulika Raj	Tulika Raj is an undergraduate senior pursuing her bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. She was born and brought up in India and has been in Atlanta since 2003. As a BME she wishes to first join the industry to learn about real-time applications of biomedical sciences. Thereafter, she hopes to be able to pick the topic for her specialization. Currently, she is debating between biomaterials, neuro engineering, drug design/delivery, bioinstrumentation and biomechanics as her fields for future specialization. She joined the MDRS crew as she believes that with humans involved in future Mars expeditions, a biomedical engineer as a crew member would provide vital engineering support related to issues such as extensive bone loss during space travel, and better instrumentation for studying vital signals of crew members. She also wishes to learn more about space suits, in order to redesign a less bulky, more maneuverable, biomechanically enhanced space suit. When she is not spending her time stuck in traffic or at school, she likes to go hiking, backpacking and camping. She also likes painting, gardening, cooking and playing World of Warcraft during her leisure time. In future she wants to be a licensed pilot and a sky-diver, as well as, train in ju-jitsu.
Elisha Sanders	Elisha Sanders is a Masters student in Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. Born and raised on the West Coast, Elisha attended Oregon State University earning a Bachelors of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics and a minor in Mathematics. Graduating from Tech in May 2008, she hopes to begin her career on the space side of the Aerospace industry. She also hopes to be involved with community development by volunteering and living in the inner city. To pursue this goal Elisha is applying for a two year internship with a Los Angeles based organization, Servant Partners. In her spare time Elisha loves to dance (especially the Lindy Hop), create collages, organize things, work on puzzles, and fix things creatively. She is also learning to love video games and hiking.

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