PSI Personnel
Overall Objectives
Project Description
The Shallow Radar (SHARAD) sounder onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been in operation at Mars since 2006. SHARAD provides a unique look into the interior structure and properties of Martian ices, volcanics, and sedimentary deposits, and it has also yielded revelation about the deeper interior and the behavior of the Martian ionosphere. For more details about SHARAD findings, see Putzig et al. (2024) and references therein.
SHARAD was provided by Agenzia Sapziale Italiana (ASI) as a Facility Instrument for NASA’s MRO mission. Roberto Seu at Sapienza Universitá di Roma serves as the SHARAD Team Leader and Nathaniel Putzig serves as the U.S. and Deputy Team Leader (DTL). Fabrizio Bernardini serves as the SHARAD Operations Manager in Rome and also consults with the U.S. Team concerning the Colorado Shallow Radar Processing System (CO-SHARPS) that is supported through this subcontract.
Other active team members at PSI include SHARAD Co-Investigator Gareth Morgan who serves as the CO-SHARPS System Scientist, SHARAD Co-Investigator Matthew Perry who serves as the CO-SHARPS System Manager, Aaron Russell who serves as a CO-SHARPS System Analyst, Megan Russell who serves as a CO-SHARPS System Analyst, David Thomas who serves as the CO-SHARPS System Administrator, and SHARAD Co-Investigator Isaac Smith who previously served as CO-SHARPS System Scientist and continues to collaborate in SHARAD Operations. Several PSI personnel have previously served as SHARAD team members, including Chance Amos, Zach Bain, Frank Chuang, and Sam Courville.
MRO and SHARAD have been in orbit and operating at Mars since 2006. Initially, the U.S. SHARAD Team was led by Roger Phillips, first at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and then at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado from mid-2007 through his resignation from the role in 2015 in prelude to his retirement. Putzig served as CO-SHARPS System Scientist throughout this period, he was appointed by NASA as a SHARAD Co-Investigator in 2013, and he became successor to Phillips in the role of SHARAD DTL in 2015. Smith joined the SHARAD team at SwRI as a post-doctoral researcher in 2014 and served as CO-SHARPS System Scientist after Putzig’s DTL appointment until his move to York University in 2018.
In 2016, Putzig joined PSI and led the effort to open a new office in Lakewood, Colorado, which he continues to manage. Smith joined him in the move and CO-SHARPS was re-established at PSI, with Smith taking on the additional role of CO-SHARPS System Manager and most of the computing equipment moved to PSI headquarters in Tucson, Arizona. Gavin Nelson served as the CO-SHARPS System Administrator from this time until his departure from PSI in 2022, with Annie Wilson and Marc Mensing acting in this role until David Thomas took it on in 2024. Perry joined PSI’s Colorado office and the SHARAD team in 2016, first serving as a CO-SHARPS System Analyst. Upon Smith’s departure in 2018, Morgan assumed the CO-SHARPS System Scientist role, having joined PSI the prior year, and Perry assumed the CO-SHARPS System Manager role.
See the U.S. SHARAD website for a list of other non-PSI participants and more details about the SHARAD investigation.
