Teams & Subteams

The CRISM team includes expertise from universities, government agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad.

Principal Investigator Scott Murchie, of The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), heads the CRISM project. APL, which has built more than 150 spacecraft instruments over the past four decades, also led the effort to develop, integrate and test CRISM and is operating it in flight.

CRISM's co-investigators are top planetary scientists from Brown University, Arizona State University, Space Science Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Paris, the Applied Coherent Technology Corporation, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames Research Center and Johnson Space Center.

The CRISM team is divided by its functions into smaller subteams, each of which focuses on running a different part of the investigation:

• Principal investigator
• Surface composition
• Surface geology
• Atmospheric properties
• Science operations
• Engineering development
• Education and Public Outreach

Principal Investigator

Scott Murchie The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory As CRISM's Principal Investigator, Scott has overall responsibility for all aspects of CRISM. Pre-launch, this included design and delivery of the instrument and representing CRISM to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project. Now with MRO in its operational phase, Scott oversees the CRISM planning team and coordinates analysis of CRISM data and its delivery to the community via the PDS.

	John (Jack) Mustard Brown University Jack is the Deputy Principal Investigator and the Surface Composition subteam lead. He has overseen, the development of the spectral library and the analysis tools that will be used to analyze CRISM data. He also has been a liaison to the OMEGA team and has participated in early analysis of their data. His main research interests related to CRISM are Martian volcanic regions and the formation of clay-rich regions.
	Robert (Rob) Green NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Rob has a long history of working with Earth-observing spectrometers, including the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and Hyperion. On CRISM, Rob has been deeply involved in instrument calibration and leads analysis of polar ice deposits.
	Janice Bishop SETI Institute NASA Ames Research Center Janice has been a key participant in assembling CRISM's spectral library and will lead the mapping of chemically bound water on the surface and study how that changes with the Martian seasons.
	Ted Roush NASA Ames Research Center Ted has been a major participant in analysis of CRISM ground testing and a contributor to the spectral library. Inflight he will focus his efforts on regions of Mars that have been altered by water.
	Richard (Dick) Morris NASA Johnson Space Center Dick has been a key contributor to the spectral library of Mars analogs. He will lead the study of iron minerals on the Martian surface (whose color gives rise to the name "Red Planet").
	Jean-Pierre Bibring University of Paris Jean-Pierre is the Principal Investigator of the OMEGA spectrometer on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, which reached Mars in December 2003. He and the OMEGA team have revolutionized our understanding of the planet's history by showing that there were two "wet" periods in early Martian history, one in which rocks were altered to clays and a later period during which acid sulfate deposits formed. Jean-Pierre has helped the CRISM team use OMEGA data to select targets, and he'll use the two instruments' data to investigate clay-rich regions.
	Shannon Pelkey Brown University Shannon has worked with the OMEGA data to simulate CRISM multispectral mapping, and she led the selection of the wavelengths to use to capture essential mineralogic information. She has led the development of data analysis tools and will be leading the synthesis of global mineralogic variations using CRISM's multispectral map and targeted observations.
	Noam Izenberg The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Noam was deeply involved in pre-launch testing of CRISM and analysis of the resulting data. He has worked with Shannon to develop the strategy for data visualization using "summary products," easily understood spectral ratios that measure different mineralogic absorptions. He will be focusing on finding and characterizing new targets using the multispectral map.

	Raymond Arvidson Washington University in St. Louis Ray leads the Surface Geology subteam. He has focused on the strategy for processing the multispectral map to mosaic together its thousands of individual image strips, taken over many months and under different lighting and atmospheric conditions. Ray is also the central conduit for delivering data to the community via the Planetary Data System.
	Mark Robinson Northwestern University Mark was one of the core individuals involved in pre-launch testing of the instrument, and he developed the plan for projecting multispectral map data into a system of tiles that covers the whole planet. In MRO's operational phase, he is focusing on the geology of Valles Marineris.
	David DesMarais NASA Ames Research Center David is an expert in exobiology, the science of life beyond Earth. Dave has helped develop CRISM's targeting strategy, and he will participate in analysis of targeted surface sites for past and present habitable environments.
	Erick Malaret Applied Coherent Technology Corporation Erick has played a central role in development of the ground data system, including definition of CRISM's data products and the data-calibration pipeline. He has constructed custom tools for automatic assembly of the multispectral map and for selection of observation targets.
	Patrick McGuire Washington University in St. Louis Patrick has worked closely with Ray Arvidson, Mike Wolff, and Mike Smith to simulate the effects of lighting geometry and atmospheric conditions on CRISM's multispectral map data. These effects are "removed" in order to mosaic together its thousands of individual image strips as seamlessly as possible.

	Mike Smith NASA Goddard Space Flight Center As the Atmospheric Properties subteam lead, Mike (at right in the image at left) will lead efforts to integrate atmospheric measurements to track the variation in atmospheric properties as a function of latitude and season.
	Mike Wolff Space Science Institute Mike (at left in the image at left) is an expert in how the atmosphere affects solar radiation passing through it. He's been the key person in developing CRISM's strategy for separating the surface and atmosphere during ground analysis.

R. Todd Clancy Space Science Institute Todd is an expert on how clouds scatter light at different wavelengths and geometries. He will lead the study of Martian clouds by combining CRISM data with that from the orbiter's wide-angle MARCI camera.

	Frank Seelos The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory When he's wearing his operations hat, Frank is the overall lead for the commanding of the CRISM instrument for normal science operations, i.e., "uplink." When he's wearing his science hat, Frank studies the properties of geologic surfaces by analyzing their scattering of solar radiation at different geometries.
	Christopher Hash Applied Coherent Technology Corporation Chris is the lead for processing of returned data, or "downlink." As an expert in data processing he tracks the disposition of all commanded observations and applies all of the corrections needed to transform raw data into physical measurements of the amount of light measured from the Martian surface.
	Terry Martin Jet Propulsion Laboratory Terry does double duty on CRISM. On the science side he's a part of the Atmospheric Properties subteam and focuses on understanding the effects of the atmosphere and temperature on spectral measurements of Mars' surface. On the operations side, Terry is CRISM's "Investigation Scientist," the team's onsite representative to the MRO project at JPL.
	Teck Choo The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Teck developed the core software for "uplink planning" and wrote the onboard library of command macros that is used for routine science operations. To do this, he got involved in many aspects of instrument design and testing. Teck is responsible for one-of-a-kind command sequences used for special tests, and he is part of the sequencing team that commands routine science observations.
	Christopher "Kit" Harvel The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory As CRISM's Project Manager, Kit is responsible for the technical implementation of the CRISM investigation, that is, keeping the investigation on schedule and managing the budget. He works closely with all staff and team members to make sure CRISM's goals are met.
	David Humm The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Dave is CRISM's Instrument Scientist. His responsbility started during instrument design and integration, with overseeing early tests and alignment, and has continued with deriving the calibration files and algorithms needed to translate raw data to physical units. He also monitors the data coming from the instrument to validate their quality.
	Peter Cavender The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Pete was part of the engineering development team that designed and built CRISM's electronics, and he participated in ground testing of the instrument. Building on this background, he developed the code for calibrating the data (translating it from raw data to physical units).
	Kevin Heffernan The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Kevin is CRISM's System Engineer, with unmatched overall knowledge of the mechanical, electrical, and thermal characteristics of the instrument. He monitors CRISM's performance, checks the health and status of the instrument, and checks flight command sequences for safety.
	Andy McGovern The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Andy has worked closely with Teck Choo, Frank Seelos, and Scott Murchie to customize the core software modules for uplink planning, and integrate them into a smart package that autonomously finds sequence opportunities and writes out the corresponding command sequences. Andy is also part of the sequencing team that commands routine science observations.
	Howard Taylor The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Howard has been working with CRISM data since the earliest ground testing, and has worked extensively with Chris Hash to design the ground hardware system. Howard is the "go-to" guy who always has solutions for ground system problems.
	Ray Espiritu Applied Coherent Technology Corporation Ray is a database specialist, and manages CRISM's list of targets for high-resolution measurements that has been compiled by the team from OMEGA, THEMIS, and other data sets.
	Kim Seelos The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory The newest addition to the CRISM team, Kim will be using CRISM data to analyze the 2007 Phoenix mission candidate landing sites in the northern plains of Mars, and will be helping with other spectral analyses. She is also part of the sequencing team that commands routine science observations.
	Pierluigi Guasqui Applied Coherent Technology Corporation Pierluigi is a software developer working on development and testing of observation planning and downlink visualization tools (i.e., target selection, network centric data access, data visualization) as well as development of the data processing pipeline.
	Calogero Mauceri Applied Coherent Technology Corporation Calogero is a software developer working on development and testing of observation planning and downlink visualization tools (i.e., target selection, network centric data access, data visualization) as well as development of the data processing pipeline.

The engineering development team that designed, built, and tested CRISM.

Dennis Fort and Barry Tossman served as System Engineer and Project Manager, respectively, through 2003. Kevin Heffernan took over from Dennis at Dennis's retirement, and Peter Bedini took over from Barry. Melissa Wirzburger was responsible for the thermal design. Jeffrey Lees was the mechanical lead; Ed Schaefer did stress and structural analyses of the designs. Paul Wilson and Jerry Rossano were responsible for the mechanical design of the two electronics modules. Lead engineers for the gimbal electronics module (GME) and targeting system were Kim Strohbehn and Dave Lohr. John Boldt had overall responsibility for the data processing electronics unit (DPU), Gordon Seagrave designed data-processing features of the DPU, and Reid Gurnee designed its power-handling features. Hugo Darlington and Alan Reiter developed and tested the focal plane electronics, and John Hayes wrote the flight software. Instrument scientist Dave Humm worked closely with Patrick Thompson (optical design) and Peter Silverglate (detector system) in the development process. Erik Donald and Jim Hutcheson were responsible for much of the integration and testing of the instrument. Ray Thompson was responsible for the harness design and fabrication including the twist capsule.

Melissa Wirzburger	Jeff Lees	Ed Schaefer	Paul Wilson
Jerry Rossano	Kim Strohbehn	Dave Lohr	John Boldt
Reid Gurnee	Hugo Darlington	Al Reiter	John Hayes
Patrick Thompson	Peter Silverglate	Erik Donald	Jim Hutcheson
Ray Thompson

Education and Public Outreach

Kerri Beisser The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Kerri is the E&PO lead and serves as the main interface to the MRO project. All of the other team members support education and public outreach.