Melissa Battler

Sponsor Melissa!

Melissa Battler, born in Kitchener, Ontario, holds an Honours B.Sc. in Earth Sciences from the University of Waterloo, and is working on her M.Sc. in Planetary Geology at the University of New Brunswick's Planetary and Space Science Centre. She is currently developing a lunar highland regolith simulant for NORCAT and Electric Vehicle Controllers (EVC), Canada, to help validate the design of lunar drilling and excavation equipment for upcoming missions to the Moon. She is also working on developing curriculum and documentation for the NASA/Mars Society "Spaceward Bound" Mars astronaut training program. During the summer of 2004 she attended NASA Ames Astrobiology Academy, where she became a Science Team member on the NASA Ames Honor Award-winning Mars Drilling Project, MARTE (Mars Analogue Rio Tinto Experiment). She has served on six crews at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah: as Crew Geologist on Expedition One (Mar 2003); as Research Manager/Science Instructor on Expedition Alpha (Dec 2004); as Commander/Science Instructor on Expedition Beta (Feb 2006); as Commander on NASA Spaceward Bound Crew #4 (Jan 2007); as Crew Geologist on Expedition Three (Feb 2007); and as Commander/Geologist for the FMARS 2007 training rotation (Feb/Mar 2007). She plans to continue managing operations of many future Mars analog missions, including commanding the first four-month expedition to the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, FMARS, on Devon Island, Canada (May-Aug 2007). She is a Canadian Space Agency Student Ambassador, President of Mars Society Canada, Executive Member of the International Lunar Explorer's Society, Canadian Representative for Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), Advisor to the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) Canada, founder of the Waterloo and Fredericton Space Societies, and a member of both the Association of Mars Explorers and the MDRS Remote Science Team. She enjoys rock-climbing, yoga, hiking, camping, ice-climbing, SCUBA diving, skydiving, traveling, and is working on her pilot's license. Her primary goal is to become an astronaut and to study the surfaces of the Moon and Mars, however she would be almost as happy to train future astronauts, and prepare them for scientific exploration of other planets.