RocketSTEM Issue #8 - July 2014 | Page 7

Also Methane has been detected on Mars and is known to be on to develop liquid Methane or liquid another world is invented, then once the equipment was in place to manufacture the fuels, no further precursor missions would be required. new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities, and validating operational concepts for related to crew safety and mission operations in deep space, and are strongly coupled to future vehicle development. According to Olansen, “It’s a relatively small project, probably about 45 – 50 civil servants, and 10 – 12 support contractors. We have people from the Jet Propulsion Lab who are considered contractors that are tied in. We have folks from here at Johnson and at Langley Research Center that are considered contractors. We get a lot of support from a lot of different areas. “Still a relatively small team, but with a wide variety of backgrounds, a spacecraft like this. You could be interested in electronics or electrical engineering, you could be interested in propulsion, you could be interested in operations, you could be interested in the guidance, navigation, and controls aspects, or you could be interested in structures. If you have interest in any one of those areas, they all apply. “A lot of different interests would have applicability in this, so we have a wide variety of personnel on the team, and they have done a great team, as well as learning, because it’s also a very diverse team from senior engineers who have been doing things for a long time, and and teaching folks. It’s really a great www.RocketSTEM .org 05 05