Expeditioners

Profiles of some of the expeditioners are included below, with more details to follow.

Dr Jonathan Clarke - Expedition Leader

Dr Jonathan Clarke is expedition coordinator and Mars Society Australia president.  A geologist by training with 30 years experience in industry, universities and government, he has worked all over Australia, in the surrounding oceans, as well as overseas, including the US, Chile, and the Philippines.  Jonathan has an interest in martian geology, geomorphology, resources and their terrestrial analogues, as well as astrobiology.  He is also interested in martian exploration strategies and Mars mission architecture.  The Arkaroola Mars Robot Challenge Jonathan’s seventh expedition on behalf to MSA, third as coordinator. Previous expeditions have included four  rotations to the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, Arkaroola, central Australia, and the Pilbara. On this expedition, in addition to coordinator, Jonathan will be providing geological input into the field science, engineering, and education programs.  Jonathan is married to Anna and has two adult daughters.

Will Andrews

Photo & Bio Pending

Astrid Dahl

Astrid Dahl is the Habitat communications base (Hab-com) operations manager and on-site point of contact for Saber Astronautics. Currently hailing from Sydney, Astrid is an econometrician by training and PhD candidate in aeronautical engineering with the University of New South Wales working on modelling complex systems. Her experience includes over ten years as a modeller, researcher and project manager in the public and private sectors, most recently with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences. Astrid has an interest in operations research, image analysis and space systems - especially when they involve field experiments. On the Arkaroola Mars Robot Challenge, Astrid will be managing data collection and communications with the Saber Astronautics Responsive Space Operations Centre.

Prashanth Dharawath

Prashanth Dharawath is a third year undergraduate student of Aerospace Engineering  at the Indian institute of Technology Bombay.  As a part of the electrical subsystems team for the rover project, he designed circuits for rover and working as systems engineer. His research interests are Avionics, fluid mechanics. He enjoys flying RC planes, trekking and swimming.

Pradip Gatkine

Pradip Gatkine has just completed his undergraduate studies, majoring in Mechanical Egineering (with a minor in Physics) at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He leads the electronics subsystem in the Mars Society India Rover team. He has worked towards the development of overall systems design, control algorithms, feedback systems, communication protocols and integration. Pradip is interested in developing autonomous navigation for the rover mobility system through systems such as GPS, vision, traction and motion feedback. He is also interested in developing an image processing algorithm to reconstruct terrain model and obtain instantaneous wheel-terrain interaction for all the wheels of a planetary rover for base station control. Apart from rover electronics, his research interests include astrophysics, astronomical instrumentation, near-space payload design, astrobiology and bio-medical instrumentation.

Professor Simon George

Simon George was awarded a BSc (Hons) degree in geology from St Andrews University in Scotland in 1985 and then worked as a mudlogger. He obtained his PhD (1990) in organic geochemistry at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, for his work on the influence of igneous activity on petroleum generation and accumulation. From 1991 to 2006 he worked for CSIRO in Sydney, Australia. When he left he was a Senior Principal Research Scientist leading research into the molecular geochemistry of petroleum and petroleum source rocks. He moved to Macquarie University in 2006, where he is now a Professor with a research group in organic geochemistry, working especially on research areas to do with the geochemical record of the early evolution of life and bioremediation in cold climates. In 2014 he is the Head of Department, Earth and Planetary Sciences. He is experienced with geological fieldwork (both for research and teaching), and in July 2011 took part in the Mars Society of Australia expedition (NASA Spaceward Bound) to the Pilbara.

Dr Jason Held

Dr. Held was a US Army Major for USSTRATCOM (formerly Space Command). He was a lead instructor at the Interservice Space Fundamentals Course and a guest engineer at Army Space and Missile Command Battle Lab. He wrote flight software for the Hubble Space Telescope and tested the International Space Station. Dr. Held was twice a guest instructor for the University of Stuttguart’s IRS Space Station Design Workshop and led a research expedition in the high Canadian Arctic. At the University of Sydney, he founded the space engineering laboratory, providing leadership for the university CubeSat project and Australia’s first premix rocket engine. Dr. Held’s PhD developed foundational methods of Systems of Systems engineering and other complex systems problems.

Nicci Hilton

Nicci is a secondary school Science teacher with 8 years teaching experience, she has taught across all sectors. Government schools, Catholic and Private schools. Nicci completed her Masters in Science Education in 2012, focusing predominantly on gifted and talented students and delivering Science from an Indigenous perspective. She travelled across the USA as a Churchill Fellow in 2011 seeking quality teaching resources and information on current research into Science education for Australian Teachers. Nicci was the recipient of the NSW Government Science and Engineering Award for Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education in 2013, in 2008 she was awarded the Minister for Education’s Medal of Distinction and Best National Achievement in the Australian Government Quality Schooling Awards. In January this year Nicci travelled to Canada and New Zealand on the NSW Premiers Copyright and Cultural Agency’s Teacher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity. She used this opportunity to observe how Indigenous Perspectives are delivered through the Science Curriculum in these countries. During her Spaceward Bound experience Nicci hopes to develop a scaffolded project on building a rover that teachers can use to extend their students knowledge of panetary Science, Engineering, Electronics and Technology.

Sarah Houlahan

Sarah Houlahan is a third year undergraduate student, studying a Bachelor of Science with a major in Palaeobiology at Macquarie University. She is a research assistant in the Organic Geochemistry lab, working on soil samples collected from Macquarie Island to analyse the biodegradation of petroleum. She is also a research assistant in the Palaeobiology lab, analysing molluscan drilling predation patterns from samples collected on the Great Barrier Reef. My interests include palaeobiology, organic geochemistry and astrobiology, with the hope that future study endeavours incorporate all three areas. Her previous fieldwork includes research components of various university unit and 3 months in the Amazon Rainforest collecting data for a conservation project. On the Arkaroola expedition she will be Simon George’s research assistant.

Yilser Kabaran

Yilser Kabaran is in his second year studying Mechatronics Engineering and Computer Science at UNSW Australia, aiming to focus in automated systems and robotics. Outside of study, he spends his time designing and building small student group projects. Yilser has been managing the UNSW BLUEsat Robotics team since the start of 2014 and hopes to bring his team into NASA's lunabotics competition.

Alankar Kotwal

Alankar Kotwal is a third-year undergraduate student, studying electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of TechnologyBombay. He is a part of the coding and electrical subsystems in the Mars Rover developed by the MSI. He is specifically interested in using image processing and dead-reckoning methods for improving autonomous navigation for the rover in the future. Apart from this he is also interested in astrophysics. His primary research interests include high energy astrophysics and machine learning as a tool for making sense of astrophysical data. He is also interested in stellar physics, galaxy structure, cosmology and the large-scale structure of the universe. He enjoys listening to good music, cycling, swimming, long walks and talking to people.

Alap Kshirsagar

Alap Kshirsagar has just completed his undergraduate studies with major in Mechanical Engineering (honours) and minor in Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He leads the mechanical subsystem in the Mars Society India's rover project. He has worked towards the design and manufacture of the mobility system and chassis of the rover and robotic arm, with end effectors for collecting soil samples and gripping objects. Alap is also working towards the development of a terramechanics based motion dynamics simulation tool for the rover, incorporating wheel-soil interaction mechanics, drive motor characteristics and forward dynamics of the rover's mobility system. He is also interested in developing a slip based traction control technique for improving the mobility of the rover over difficult terrain. Apart from planetary rovers, Alap aims to pursue research related to other applications of robotics in space such as orbital robotics and asteroid/comet exploration. His hobbies include playing sports-especially field hockey, reading novels and listening to music.

Jeffrey Lai

Jeffrey Lai is a student (as of 2014) studying Electrical engineering & telecommunications at the University of New South Wales. His interests lie in the fields of Networking, especially in Layers 2 and 3. He is currently doing a thesis in the fields of Software Defined Networking. Outside of research, Jeff enjoys his time in the great outdoors, with camping and rock climbing.

Dr Graham Mann

Dr. Graham Mann teaches and carries out research in the fields of robotics and human-factors engineering at Murdoch University in Perth, where he runs the Applied Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He has designed and built several advanced field robots, including the Mascot hexapod for remote site maintence, such as a planetary base. He is manager of Project Marsupial, which aims to develop a medium-fidelity prototype vehicle for carrying future human explorers on Mars. So far the project has gathered over $80,000 of sponsorship, principally from Starchaser Industries, a UK aerospace firm, and has published eight papers in national and international conferences and journals. The prototype vehicle, Starchaser, is currently under construction in Hobart, Tasmania.

Steph McArthur

Photo & Bio pending

Guy Murphy

Guy Murphy's long-standing interest in Mars exploration was initially fired by reading science fiction while a university student, then by the Mars Pathfinder landing in 1998. He co-founded the Mars Society Australia later that year and served as its President between 2000 and 2005. He has participated in a number of scientific expeditions to Mars-like environments in outback South Australia. In 2003 he lived for 3 weeks with a crew of 12 in a simulated Mars base in southern Utah (the Mars Desert Research Station), providing support to a team of international engineering and scientific researchers. Guy has spoken at Mars conferences in Australia, Europe and the United States, and in 2005 attended a week long Moon-Mars habitat design workshop at the technical headquarters of the European Space Agency in the Netherlands. He is the author of 'Mars: A Survival Guide" (2010).

Rahul Prajapat

Rahul Prajapat, a fourth year undergraduate student at electrical engineering in IIT Bombay, is heading the electrical subsystem of the rover project of the Mars Society of India. He coordinates various sub-parts of the electrical subsystem and takes care of integration-related issues. He is particularly interested in embedded systems wireless communication systems design. He has actively participated in designing the main board of rover, has played a crucial role in conceptualization of communication system for telemetry and video feedback, has developed various high power motor driver circuits for the rover. Apart from the rover project, he is currently involved in making a Cloud assisted QoS-Aware video streaming product for distance education purposes in rural India, product can access video data over multiple wireless access networks, essentially over heterogenous networks. 

Aditya Rajagopal

Aditya Rajagopal is Fourth-Year Undergraduate student from the department of Aerospace engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He is part of the mechanical subsystem of Mars Society India's rover project. He has worked towards the development of the robotic arm and a mobility system for the rover. He is also working towards the development of a kinematic and dynamic model for the robotic arm. He is specifically interested in extra-terrestrial navigation systems. His primary research interests are orbital dynamics, satellite attitude dynamics and spacecraft navigation. His hobbies include running, recreational video games, shogi and watching anime.

Dr Ken Silburn