This Echo is READ ONLY !   NO Un-Authorized Messages Please!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MARS INSTITUTE PRESS RELEASE
April 22, 2003

MARS EXPLORATION HISTORIAN AND SCIENCE WRITER DAVID PORTREE JOINS
MARS INSTITUTE RESEARCH FACULTY

Mountain View, CA, - The Mars Institute today announced that David S.
F. Portree has joined the Mars Institute's Research Faculty as an
Associate Researcher.

Mr. Portree is a recognized historian of space exploration and an
award-winning independent science writer based in Flagsaff, Arizona.
He was formerly Senior Technical Writer and Historian at NASA's
Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He holds a M.S. (1987) in
History from Illinois State University and is an educator at the
Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. 

Mr. Portree is the author of several scholarly historical monographs
commissioned and published by NASA, including Mir Hardware Heritage
(1995), Walking to Olympus: an EVA Chronology (1997), NASA's Origins
and the Dawn of the Space Age (1998), Orbital Debris: A Chronology
(1999), and most recently, Humans to Mars: Fifty Years of Mission
Planning, 1950-2000 (2001). Walking to Olympus received the 1998
Napolitano Book Award from the International Academy of Astronautics.

"David brings unique expertise in historical research and great
communication skills to the Mars Institute's Research Faculty," said
Marc Boucher, the Mars Institute's CEO. "Part of the Mars Institute's
mission is to communicate to researchers, students and the general
public the results, progress and benefits of Mars exploration through
the development and implementation of educational and public outreach
activities. David's background will be an asset for both the Mars
Institute's research efforts and its public outreach endeavors."

"Mars exploration has a rich history, an exciting present, and the
potential for an even more exciting future. I'm pleased to have the
opportunity to work with all the great people in the Mars Institute
to help make that future happen," Mr. Portree said upon learning of
his acceptance into the Mars Institute Research Faculty.

Mr. Portree joins the Mars Institute's current Research Faculty: Dr.
Pascal Lee, Chairman of the Mars Institute and Principal Investigator
at the SETI Institute; and Dr. Charles Cockell, Vice-President of the
Mars Institute, and a Research Scientist at both the British
Antarctic Survey and the SETI Institute.

About the Mars Institute

The Mars Institute is a non-profit public benefit corporation
registered and incorporated in both the United States and Canada
whose purpose is to further the scientific study, exploration, and
public understanding of Mars. The Institute:

- develops, implements and supports high quality peer-reviewed
scientific research about the planet Mars, its present nature, and
its climatic, geologic and possibly biologic evolution, including
through analog studies (investigations of similarities and
differences between the Earth, Mars and other planets);

- analyzes, develops and implements concepts, technologies and
strategies for the exploration of Mars, by robotic systems and
humans;

- informs the public on the results, progress, and benefits to
humankind of Mars exploration through the development and
implementation of educational and public outreach activities.

For more information, please contact:

Marc Boucher, CEO
Mars Institute
NASA Research Park
Moffett Field, CA 94035-0006
Tel.: 1+ (250) 380-4614
mboucher{at}marsinstitute.info
http://marsinstitute.info

 - END OF FILE -
==========

@Message posted automagically by IMTHINGS POST 1.30
---