Kurt Klaus

Kurt Klaus is a hybrid; a planetary geologist doing advanced computing for an engineering company. He worked for 8.5 years in the oil and gas business as an exploration geophysicist prior to being hired by Boeing. While at Boeing, he has been involved in special project work ranging from advanced computing research to knowledge management to science consulting for Business Development. His current project is IT Project Manager for the Crew Exploration Vehicle Program at Boeing. He has a B.S in Geology from Central Michigan University, a Master's Degree in Planetary Geology from the University of Houston, and is an alumnus of the 2003 Summer Session program of the International Space University. He's played guitar in wedding bands, rock bands, and punk bands and now irritates his children by playing his guitar too loud at home. He grew up watching the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches on television and remembers the night he woke his family to watch Neil and Buzz land and set foot on the moon. He is passionate about space exploration, the outdoors, new experiences, music and life in general.. Mr. Klaus will be discussing why Mars is important to the Vision for Space Exploration., How planetary geology and engineering work together in exploring Mars, and as the only geologist on Crew 39 (Leonardo) who recently participated in the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) project, he will explain his role on that mission and the insight he brought to the team along with how his experiences at MDRS will help Boeing to effectively support the NASA customer's pursuit of the Vision for Space Exploration? Useful web links explaining the MDRS project can be found in advance of this show at http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/mdrs01.asp and http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs03/ ; http://www.marssociety.org/mdrs/.