Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto
Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto is Coordinator for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera at Arizona State University, promoting robotic and human space exploration and settlement to students, educators and the general public. From 2000 to present, she served as the Phoenix, Arizona Chapter President of the National Space Society as well as a Board of Director member of the National Space Society from 2006-2008. She is currently running for the Board of Directors again but this time as an At Large Director (a four year term as opposed to a two year term). She has also held the titles of Arizona Coordinator for the Yuri's Night venue, Phoenix Chapter President of The Mars Society (2000-2006), The Planetary Society Global Volunteer Coordinator for Arizona (2005-2008), and a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Solar System Ambassador (2004-present). Veronica Ann has always been interested in science and the great explorers of history. Human exploration is crucial for any civilization to thrive and many lessons can be learned by studying history. This led her to create the Family Living Analysis on Mars Expedition (F.L.A.M.E.) which conducted Martian analogue missions at the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) for five consecutive field seasons (2005-2008). F.L.A.M.E. is hailed as the first analogue mission to incorporate children under the age of 15 to test what life would be like living and working on the planet Mars. Veronica Ann comes back to The Space Show to discuss about the amazing imagery from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, the National Space Society's Board Director's elections that last between April-August 2010, the upcoming International Space Development Conference (ISDC) being held in Chicago at the end of May, what she learned at this year's Space Access Conference held in Phoenix, Arizona from April 8-10, 2010 and her goal of participating in the NASTAR Suborbital Scientist Training Program by the end of the year. As a senior undergraduate student at Arizona State University within the School of Earth and Space Exploration, very enjoys reading, hiking and camping in the deserts and mountains of Arizona, Utah and California, studying aviation, human adaptation within extreme regimes and giving lectures in classrooms and at conferences. Veronica Ann's research interests include lunar and Martian geology, aeolian, fluvial, and volcanic processes (both terrestrial and planetary), the location of space resources on the Moon and asteroids, human factors and the exploitation of today's technology in order to promote math, science and technology in and out of the classroom. She has high hopes that The Space Show's listeners will take a proactive stance in supporting robotic and human space exploration and she is willing to show how easy it really is to get the results you desire when you invest only 5 hours a week to a cause you truly believe in.