News Story

Mechanical Engineering Student on a Mission to "Mars"

Clark School students Heather Bradshaw, Laura Meyer and Justin Brannan

Over the 2010 winter term, three engineering students from the Clark School traveled to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah, to participate in a weeklong simulated mission to Mars, where they collaborated with an elite group of students from around the country as part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers.

Chief Engineer of the mission was Heather Bradshaw, a UM BS/MS student who completed her undergraduate mechanical engineering degree last fall. Bradshaw was named Chief Engineer due to her past experience at MDRS. After her first MDRS mission, Bradshaw recalls, "I was thrilled to participate last year, and learned a great deal from the experience. At the time we all thought this would probably be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. When I got the call inviting me for a second mission, I was ecstatic." Bradshaw was also joined by UM seniors Laura Meyer (ME/AE), Habitat Operations Officer, and Justin Brannan (AE), Field Operations Engineer.

While at the MDRS site, located near the small isolated town of Hanksville, Utah, the Clark School team conducted scientific research in the dusty crater-filled "Martian" landscape. Their work was part of the Drilling on the Moon and Mars and Human Exploration (DOMMEX) project, which provides a unique opportunity for engineering students to gain hands-on experience with technical and scientific challenges, strengthening NASA’s and the nation's future workforce. Some of the experiments included: Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), soil surveys, endolithic identification, biosignatures of shell fossils, and the application of human exploration operations metrics. In addition to these experiments, Bradshaw also conducted a human factors experiment and an aerial payload mapping project, which included the testing of an on-site geological toolkit and the mapping of various areas of the site, respectively.

Currently working on her master’s degree in aerospace engineering, Bradshaw remains involved with Tau Beta Pi, AIAA, ASME, SWE and ODK. Advised by Dr. David Akin of the Space Systems Laboratory at UM, her research focuses on varying projects related to spacesuit enhancement. Bradshaw hopes to work at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center post-graduation.

For more information about MDRS, please visit their website at http://desert.marssociety.org/.

March 8, 2010