[meteorite-list] Mars Exploration Program Director Named (Jim Watzin)

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4387

Mars Exploration Program Director Named
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
November 21, 2014

Jim Watzin has been named the new director for the agency's Mars Exploration 
Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Watzin, whose duties begin 
Dec. 1, succeeds Jim Green, NASA's planetary sciences chief who had been 
the acting Mars director since December 2012.

"Jim brings the right leadership at the right time to the Mars program," 
said Green. "His experience and creativity will be instrumental in making 
the Mars 2020 rover a reality, guiding the success of the missions leading 
up to it, and bridging the gap from science to the future human exploration 
of the Red Planet. We're excited to have him join us."

Watzin most recently served as the technical director and deputy program 
executive for Command, Control, Communication, Computer, Intelligence, 
Surveillance, and Reconnaissance at the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in 
Huntsville, Alabama. Among his other duties, he oversaw MDA's space development 
and test activities.

"Jim has a demonstrated track record of successfully leading innovative, 
cost-constrained and schedule-driven scientific space mission developments," 
said Green.

Watzin graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1978 with a 
bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. In 1980, he earned a master's 
degree in aerospace dynamics and control from Purdue University in West 
Lafayette, Indiana. He joined NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, 
Maryland in 1980, where he began a career focused largely on challenging, 
paradigm-shifting space exploration programs.

With a hands-on background in systems engineering, Watzin has led multiple 
flight projects and program offices, serving as the NASA program manager 
for several programs that included Living with a Star, Solar Terrestrial 
Probes, and Robotic Lunar Exploration.

He was the founder of the Planetary Projects Division at Goddard, where 
he oversaw the development of the Mars Science Laboratory's Sample Analysis 
at Mars instrument suite and mentored the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile 
Evolution (MAVEN) and Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith 
Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission formulation teams. MAVEN reached Mars two 
months ago and has begun studying its upper atmosphere. OSIRIS-REx will 
launch in 2016 to visit an asteroid and bring a sample of it back to Earth.

A fleet of robotic spacecraft and rovers are on and around the Red Planet, 
paving the way for future human missions on a Journey to Mars. The Mars 
Science Laboratory Curiosity rover's data are helping plan how to protect 
the astronauts who will explore Mars. The Mars 2020 rover will seek signs 
of past life and will demonstrate new technologies that could help astronauts 
survive on Mars.

The Mars 2020 mission will be based on the design of the highly successful 
Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, which landed more than two years 
ago, and currently is operating on Mars. The new rover will carry more 
sophisticated, upgraded hardware and new instruments to conduct geological 
assessments of the rover's landing site, determine the potential habitability 
of the environment, and directly search for signs of ancient Martian life.

Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and robotic and human 
exploration as we expand our presence into the solar system. Its formation 
and evolution are comparable to Earth's, so studying Mars helps us learn 
more about our own planet's history and future. Mars had conditions suitable 
for life in its past. Future exploration could uncover evidence of life, 
answering one of the fundamental mysteries of the cosmos: Does life exist 
beyond Earth?

"The Mars Exploration Program is one of the most exciting initiatives 
at NASA," said Watzin. "I'm looking forward to the challenge and thrilled 
to have the opportunity to help set the stage for the next decade of exploration."

Besides MAVEN, Curiosity and Mars 2020, the agency's Mars Exploration 
Program also includes the Opportunity rover, the Odyssey orbiter and the 
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

In 2016, a Mars lander mission called InSight will launch to take the 
first look into the deep interior of Mars. The agency also is participating 
in the European Space Agency's (ESA's) 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, 
including providing "Electra" telecommunication radios to ESA's 2016 orbiter 
and a critical element of the astrobiology instrument on the 2018 ExoMars 
rover.

NASA's Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand Mars 
as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate 
cycles, geology and biological potential -- preparing the way for future 
human spaceflight to Mars.

For more information about NASA's Mars programs, visit:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/

Media Contact

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washingon
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at jpl.nasa.gov 

2014-405