THE MARSSUIT PROJECT
By Lawrence Kuznetz (US)
This exhibit showcases a design for a radically different spacesuit — targeted not for the Moon or ISS, but for Mars, an extraordinarily different place than any we’ve ever visited. The spacesuit was designed with engineers, scientists, students and inputs from the public.
BIO
Lawrence has had the good fortune to be a space suit designer, mission controller, spacecraft builder, life-science manager and Mars scientist with NASA and its contractors. He has taught at the University of Houston, the University of California at Berkeley, and the International Space University at MIT, and is currently a lecturer at UC Berkeley, designing spacesuits for Mars with eight teams of very excited students who hope to wear their designs on the Red Planet.
Lawrence obtained his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in bioengineering from Columbia University and was awarded his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. In the wake of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003, he authored a white paper used by the US Congress that changed the face of NASA’s human research programme. He holds eight US patents, is a private pilot and was the only non-celebrity guest ever invited back on consecutive nights on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show. In his spare time, he likes to play keyboard at piano bars.