Please support our new Haughton-Mars Project Apollo Fellowship Program.
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The HMP Apollo Fellowship Program was created in 2019 on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The program aims to prepare the next generation of planetary explorers, scientists and engineers, for humanity’s return to the Moon and our first journeys to Mars. The HMP Apollo Fellowship Program engages academically outstanding students, recent graduates, and veterans, in field research in planetary science and exploration at the Haughton-Mars Project site on Devon Island, High Arctic. The program is funded through private contributions.
HMP-2019 Apollo Fellow: Brandon Dotson
Brandon Dotson was the first recipient of the HMP Apollo Fellowship Award. He graduated in 2010 from the US Military Academy at West Point with a double major in Physics and Chemistry with Honors. He was then awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and earned a Master’s in Physics at Caltech. While at Caltech, Brandon served as Research Assistant at NASA JPL in advanced propulsion development, and at the Space Radiation Lab in solar wind physics. He later earned a second Master’s in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech, with a focus on aircraft design and rocket propulsion. Beginning in 2012, Brandon attended flight school in the U.S. Army, learning to fly the AH-64D Apache helicopter and other military aircraft. He graduated as the Honor Graduate for the AH-64D course in 2013, and was assigned as a Platoon Leader and Company Commander with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY. As an attack helicopter pilot, Brandon deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Resolute Support and Operation Freedom Sentinel. Brandon is currently an active duty Aviation Officer in the US Army. Applying his aviation experience, he graduated in 2019 with Class 155 from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, and is now assigned as an Experimental Test Pilot at the U.S. Army’s Aviation Flight Test Directorate in Huntsville, AL. Brandon is an Eagle Scout, a certified scuba instructor, a licensed parachutist, and holds FAA commercial pilot ratings for helicopters, airplanes, gliders, and seaplanes. He also holds a wilderness first responder medical certification and an emergency first response medical certification. As part of his HMP Apollo Fellowship, Brandon participated in the HMP-2019 field campaign and carried out field research with HMP director Dr Pascal Lee in tests of concepts of operations for drones and other flying systems in support of future human Moon and Mars science and exploration. He served in particular as spacesuit subject and test pilot in the HMP Astronaut Smart Glove experiment. He also served as HMP-2019 Field Safety Officer. Congrats again Brandon!