Alex Kirk, who lives just across the river from DC in Arlington, VA, is a 28-year-old space advocate, political activist and self-described "computer geek". He works full-time as a network security analyst for Sourcefire, Inc., the creators of Snort (the world's most widely deployed open source network intrusion detection/prevention system), and also runs 3 Ace Solutions, a small web programming business founded in 2001. Alex's driving passion is human exploration of Mars, and as such he works closely with the Mars Society, where he serves as webmaster and as a member of the Political and PR/Marketing Task Forces. He created and maintains the Mars Society's political fax tool (http://fax.marssociety.org/), which he hopes will be used to show grass-roots support for space exploration for years to come.