Dr. Dean Eppler is a geologist, field operations person, pilot, and sort-of Systems Engineer who has been working at Johnson Space Center since 1990. During his time at JSC, he worked on a number of different number projects, including conceiving of, and leading the team that built the Window Observational Research Facility on ISS, serving as the lead space suit test subject for advanced EVA development, working with the engineers, managers, and operations personnel in Constellation to integrate science into the plans for the return to the Moon, and running (along with Duane Ross) the astronaut geologic training program. Dean's talk will describe how the Apollo surface missions were planned and executed, and how well the Apollo fieldwork represented the geology of the Moon.
Dr. Eppler attended St. Lawrence University for his undergraduate work and completed advanced degrees in Geology from the University of New Mexico (MS) and from Arizona State University (PhD). In between degrees, he was a U.S. Army Combat Engineer Officer, filling a variety of leadership positions in the 4th Engineer Battalion at Fort Carson, CO. Since his retirement from NASA in 2016, Dean has been employed by The Aerospace Corporation, undertaking a number of projects on the technical history of Apollo as they apply to future missions to the Moon.
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