Aliens of the Deep - crew members

Dr Kelly Snook, Planetary Scientist

Kelly is a planetary Scientist specializing in Mars science and exploration at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Most of her research focuses on designing, conducting and evaluating expeditions on Earth that serve as analogs for missions to the moon or Mars. She also studies the dust in the atmosphere of Mars using computational radiative transfer models. Her work takes her from polar deserts to island volcanos and oceanographic research vessels. She works to reduce the cost and risk of NASA's planetary exploration missions by applying lessons learned from the science, technology development, and operations research conducted at analog sites.

The expeditions of Aliens of the Deep were a remarkable analog for space exploration. In association with these expeditions, Kelly created and led the NASA Oceanographic Analog Missions Activity (NOAMA) to study elements of exploration such as traverse planning; sample collection, processing, and curation; remote science operations; exploration communications; crew time scheduling; real-time hardware design, manufacture, repair, and integration; crew psychology; and human factors. Kelly has since moved to NASA Headquarters in Washington DC to apply her knowledge of space analogs to the development of NASA's presidentially mandated "new vision for exploration" for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Kelly makes the connection between "inner space and outer space," she says. "There are many comparisons we can draw between this expedition and a mission to Mars. We can learn valuable lessons about how to explore another planet scientifically. We've learned a lot that can feed directly into the planning of space missions."