Natalia Zalewska – Crew Commander

Natalia Zalewska graduated the University of Warsaw with a Masters degree in Geology. She got her Ph.D. at Space Reseach Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences.
Currently she continues her work for SRC PAS and since 2014 she also works for Institute of Aviation in Warsaw. For years she’s been involved in Martian geology and she participated in many projects researching this planet’s surface. She specializes in interpreting infrared spectra, the geology of Martian analogs and deals with issues of origin and presence of water on the plantes of our Solar System.
In 2005 she took part in the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah (MDRS) as a geologist of Crew 33.
Now as a commander of Polish crew she will continue expanding the research on similar processes occuring on the surface of Mars and at the desert of Utah.
Natalia is also passionate about the theater. After getting her degree in geology she graduated from acting school. She also plays violin since childhood.

 

Michał Kazaniecki

Third year student of Robotics and Automation at Warsaw University of Technology. His main interest as an engineer is electronics, especially interfacing with lower-level devices. As a member of Students’ Space Association (SKA) he was one of creators of Ares Martian Rover (its main motor drivers, manipulator and sensors). He took part in European Rover Challenge 2015 and 2016 and University Rover Challenge 2016. Currently he is a leader of SKA Robotics – a robotic division of Association, but also takes part in development of rovers and robots. Participation in MDRS is an opportunity to take completely different approach to space exploration and to gather experience.

 

Jędrzej Górski

Jedrzej Gorski is a Ph.D. candidate at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Poland), founder of Wroclaw Space and Aviation Group (WSAG). Since early childhood he was dreaming about flying and space exploration. Jedrzej has an academic and industrial background in computer science and aerospace engineering. As a system engineer and project manager for balloon experiment Jedrzej and his team design and build an experiment, from a scratch. Its scientific goal is to study the chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) decay process called Project FREDE (FREon Dacay Experiment). From technical perspective it’s a mobile laboratory which can operate on ground and in the stratosphere conditions. His path to the space sector was boosted through a unique internship at the ESA Education Office (ESTEC, The Netherlands) as a software developer for the GENSO project (Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations). Before that, he had the occasion to work with other major industrial players like Google and IBM and conduct research project at University of Mondragon (Pais Basco, Spain) in area of hardware and system modeling. In August 2014 Jedrzej graduated from International Space University after participation in Space Studies Program in Montreal. FREDE experiment was launched on 7th of October 2015. New prototype is under construction.

 

Karolina Zawieska

Karolina Zawieska is a researcher in the field of Human-Robot Interaction. With background in sociology and social science, she obtained her PhD degree in Inclusive Design & Creative Technology Innovation from UCD SMARTlab, Ireland. She has also been affiliated with the Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements PIAP, Poland. Her research interests include different social and ethical aspects of robotics, in particular anthropomorphism inherent to different forms of human-robot interactions.

 

Krzysztof Jędrzejak

Press officer at Crew 176. The possibility of documenting and publishing first, fully Polish crew is extremely exciting iniciative. This kind of expedition is really important not only for participants, but also for early-stage projects and its creators.