WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- An Air Force Institute of Technology alumnus and retired Air Force officer was selected by NASA and the University of Hawaii as one of nine team members to participate in an upcoming simulated mission to Mars.
Edward Fix, who earned a Master of Science in electrical engineering from AFIT, will participate in the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) mission. This eight-month mission begins in October. It is the third in a series for NASA; the first two missions were each four months long, and the fourth will be 12 months.
During this mission, the team will be engaged in a broad variety of research, exploration, engineering, and outreach activities, as well as exercising and carrying out routine housekeeping chores. The research is being conducted for NASA by the University of Hawaii, using a 1,000-square-foot, domed habitat at 8,000 feet elevation in an abandoned quarry on the northern slope of the Mauna Loa volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. The crew will reside there for the duration of the mission.
Fix was commissioned as an Air Force officer in 1979. He served as a B-52 co-pilot, aircraft commander and flight commander, AFIT student, technical program research leader and first-level supervisor in the Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate.
After retiring from the Air Force in 1998, Fix was a defense contractor.
