Mars Desert Research Station - Crews

Crews

MDRS crews traditionally consist of six people, who volunteer for one of the two week shifts or crew rotations available during the northern hemisphere's winter months. The field season ends in the northern spring since the summer heat of the desert is not conducive to a pleasant simulation. Crews pay all of their own transportion expenses to get to and from the designated assembly place from where they are transported to and from MDRS. As Volunteers, the Crews are not paid for their participation in a crew rotation at the station, but do get valuable experience. The crews usually consist of a mix of astronomers, physicists, biologists, geologists, engineers and the occasional journalist. Each crew member is usually assigned a role: Commander, Executive Officer (ExO), Health and Safety Officer (HSO), Crew Biologist, Crew Geologist or Chief Engineer.

The Crew Commander is ultimately responsible for the entire crew and operations. Their other responsibilities include maintaining a structured stream of information from the crew to Mission Support, establishing the agenda for each day (EVAs, maintenance, cooking, cleaning, etc.) and holding morning and evening meetings with all crew members. The Executive Officer's duty is to act as the second in command during the mission and to act as the Commander in the event that the Commander is incapacitated or unavailable. The Crew Geologist and the Crew Biologist work together to establish and accomplish the science goals of the mission. The Crew Geologist and Crew Biologist are in charge of developing the geology and biology goals for the mission, planning field EVAs and subsequent laboratory work to achieve those goals. Both the Crew Geologist and Crew Biologist work with the Remote Science Team (RST) during all stages of the mission. The Chief Engineer is responsible for maintaining all systems necessary for routine Hab operations. These include the power, water, ATV and GreenHab systems.

As of February 2011, 99 crews have served rotations at MDRS over a period of ten years.