Since January 2021 SAM has been designed and built by a dedicated, talented team of volunteers and staff who have lived and worked together at Biosphere 2, from a few days to a year or more at a time. It is their tireless dedication to quality fabrication that has made SAM possible with a limited budget and demanding time frame.

SAM TEAM MEMBERS
Kai Staats, MSc — Director of Research, Project Lead
Luna Powell — SAM Vessel Fabrication; SAM Hydroponics, Systems Trainer, Chaos Wrangler
Matthias Beach — SAM Vessel Fabrication
Nathan Schmit — SAM Vessel Fabrication
Griffin Hentzen — Mechanical Engineer, CO2 Scrubber design and fabrication
James Knox, PhD. — NASA Veteran, Aerospace Engineer for CO2 scrubber design
Bindhu Oommen, MD — Operations knowledge capture, Med Bay design, IRB lead
Linda Leigh, PhD — Plant Studies Advisor, SAM Hydroponics
Atila Meszaros — University of Arizona graduate student in Biosystems Engineering, SAM Hydroponics
Carter Hollings — University of Arizona undergraduate student in Biology, SAM Microbiome studies
Tasha Coelho — Planetary Geologist student (ASU SESE); Mars Yard Curriculum Lead

Cameron Smith, PhD — Pressure suit development; Tent design and fabrication from Smith Exploration Garments
Kai Nevers — Pressure suit development; Tent design and fabrication
Ivy Wahome — Textiles fabrication and repair

Trent Tresch — Director of the Center for Human Space Exploration (CHaSE)
Sean Young — NASA Intern through CHaSE

Ezio Melotti — Life Support Systems Monitoring Lead
Franco Carbognani — Life Support Systems Monitoring Developer
Christopher Murtagh — Systems Administrator, SAM Communications Lead and SIMOC Live Support

Jason Francois — Architect and 3D modeler
Bryan Versteeg — Space Architect at SpaceHabs.com
Leonardo Buono — Filmmaker and 3D modeler

PRIOR TEAM MEMBERS
(alphabetical order, 2021-recent past) Colleen Cooley, Robert David, Angus G., Sean Gellenbeck, PhD., Grant Hawkins, Trenton Kenney, Natasha Loving, Amin Mody, Natasha Nichols, Mason Robbins, Greg Ross, KC Shasteen, Anastasia Stepanova, Rob Ronci and Jolene Varga, John Zelenky; Aaron, John, Tim, Terry, and the Biosphere 2 staff.

UA Engineering 498, 2020-21
University of Arizona Engineering 498 Capstone team members designed and built a working, scaled prototype of an Automated Pressure Regulation System for SAM. A full-scale system will be built on the foundation of their design to work in conjunction with the Test Module’s lung. Students: Ahmed Alraeesi, James Marlar, Meghan Marlowe, Nathan Moeller, Coby Scheidemantel, Gustavo Velez, Arfan Wibisono

UA Engineering 498, 2021-22
University of Arizona Engineering 498 Capstone team members are designing and building a working, scaled prototype of a solid-state, swing bed CO2 scrubber. This Mars X-Hab project is funded by NASA, and guided by experts at NASA in CO2 scrubbing research and applications. Students: Brianna Otero, Grace Halferty, Joaquin Pesqueira, Kenneth Werrell, William Fowler