[1]Team FREDNET is comprised of three key systems, software, and hardware developers who serve as the leaders and overall coordinators of an international group of Open Source developers, engineers, and scientists. Our goal (besides winning the Google Lunar X PRIZE), is to bring the same successful approach used in developing major software systems (such as the Internet, and Linux) to bear on the problems associated with Space Exploration and Research. In so doing, we plan to establish an Open Space Foundation that provides incentives, education, and funding to future individuals and organizations seeking opportunities in this final frontier. In addition, we hope to foster greater public interest in Space Exploration and Research as well as educate the public at large on the past, present, and future importance of these discoveries, while simultaneously (through our Open Source initiative) giving individual contributors the opportunity to have a very real impact on the world around us all. Our effort is a means for an individual (or many individuals) to change the world. Our architecture is simple, we are building a very small rover which shall be soft-landed at specific target coordinates on the Moon by a very small lander. The rover shall communicate with the lander, and the lander shall act as the main communications relay and Luna-based web and Internet server.
What additional scientific equipment above and beyond competition requirements might Team FredNet be launching and why?
We anticipate offering both a high school and university level competition for additional science projects that will fit inside the parameters of our mission offering. We intend to do this to promote awareness of our team, the Google Lunar X PRIZE, unmanned extraterrestrial exploration, and space flight and travel in general.
In addition we anticipate various unique opportunities for certain educational and scholastic groups to control (within a set of defined parameters) the actual Mooncraft, after it has successfully completed the requirements of the Google Lunar X PRIZE.
Team Roster
Fred J. Bourgeois, III Team Leader
Fred J. Bourgeois, III has been dreaming and making plans to pursue space exploration since he was two. Growing up in a "NASA family" probably had a lot to do with that. Originally from Waveland, Mississippi, Bourgeois spent most of his childhood and pre-college years in Huntsville, Alabama, where he attended Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom High School along with scores of other NASA kids. Bourgeois was early recognized for his mathematical talents, and went on to receive his BSCS degree from Tulane University's School of Engineering. After attending the Tulane Graduate School, he began a career in academia teaching Computer Science at the University of Minnesota, and later for Eaton Corporation's Information Management Systems Division, and several University extension programs. Bourgeois' teaching for Eaton included support for clients utilizing satellite systems and networks, and command, control, and communications programs. Bourgeois next worked as a contractor on classified programs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California. Weary of the classified world, his next endeavour brought him to Santa Cruz, California (near Silicon Valley), where he initially worked for MetaWare Incorporated as a Senior Compiler Developer, and then into his own software development and consulting business, FREDNET. Now operating for more than 16 years, the company was renamed Applios Inc. (Applied Open Source Technology) in 1999 and continues to provide Software Development, Systems Engineering, Networking, and Information Security solutions today. Applios' current and past clients include Lockheed Martin, NEC, AMD, Transmeta, Resilience, Sun, SJSU, many Silicon Valley startup companies, and a number of local and regional Internet Service Providers. Fred J. Bourgeois, III is the founder and Leader of Team FREDNET.
Richard D. Core Software Team Leader
Richard D. Core started his career in space while still in college, and has been a space geek ever since. After completing a BSEE degree from the University of Michigan (Dearborn), Mr. Core participated in human visual experiments in pattern recognition and countermeasures at the Willow Run Rad Lab. He moved on to the AEDC Large Rocket Facility of Arnold Air Force Base where he was an Associate Engineer testing Saturn S-IVB J-1 Engine restart inside the altitude/environment chamber and later worked for Lockheed MSC, where he first served as Associate Responsible Engineer in the Space Systems Division on the Agena-D Vehicle Hi-Gain Comm Equipment program, and later worked as a Systems Analyst with the Missle Systems Division in the Office of the Chief Engineer on the Polaris test flight simulation and analysis program and Atmospheric EMP simulations program. After relocating to the Silicon Valley region, Mr. Core received an MSCS degree from Santa Clara University. His notable accomplishments since include being the Project Lead on the first ever Desktop Color Terminal at Ramtek Corp. He also founded Santa Cruz Computer, which provided project management, programming, and testing services to a host of clients including Microsoft, AMD, Belgium National Bank, and developed all of the software for a North Slope Drilling Platform that rolled on the same tractors used for the Saturn 5 launches. Richard D. Core is Team FREDNET's Software Lead.
Daniel F. Smith Hardware Team Leader
Dan Smith began dreaming about space long before Neal stepped out onto Luna in 1969. His first glimpse as a kid was the Mercury program stories in National Geographic. Later as a teenager, Dan would sit for hours with his 'space buddies', pondering every aspect of space exploration. Many topics from those discussions are reality today, patented and produced. As kids, we were very inventive. That part of Dan has never changed. Next came a college degree in Industrial Electronics and a 27 year career in the storage industry. Many aspects of Dan's past jobs will going into this team effort. Everything from magnetic read-write circuits, servo/motor drivers, various communication links, power supplies, RF/microwave circuit design, but most importantly, people. Dan grew up and works in a sea of technical people. He has mastered the ability to see beyond current circumstances to troubleshoot and solve complex problems with many different resources. This has lead Dan into many areas of team management and project development. The way Dan sees it, this is just an engineering job: find solutions and move on. Dan Smith is the Hardware Team Lead. He can turn a wrench, wield a soldering iron, or argue with the best of them.
Michael Foster Team Marketing Advisor
Michael Foster is a marketing communications expert and the SVP of Worldwide Marketing for The MediaTile Company - the world's first provider of cellular-digital-signage. Mr. Foster is responsible for MediaTile's worldwide marketing strategy, partner programs, go-to-market campaigns, publicity and Web activities. Mike has more than 20 years of experience in creating category and market leadership positions for software, products and services offerings and has worked extensively with strategic partners, enterprise customers, and major retail, hospitality and food service chains. Prior to joining MediaTile in 2003, Mr. Foster held executive marketing positions in publicly-traded software and services companies including Progress Software Corporation and the original SCO, and with startups providing software-as-a service (SAAS) solutions and software development tools.
Chris C. Clabaugh Business Development Advisor
TBD
Joseph Martin Stevenson Higher Education Liason
Joseph Martin Stevenson is the Founding Director of the Executive Ph.D. Program and the Jake Ayers Institute for Research in Urban Higher Education at Jackson State University, where he is a tenured Professor in the College of Education and Human Development. He earned the B.S. degree and two (2) M.A. degrees from California State University and the M.S. and PhD degrees from the University of Oregon. He has been an eminent scholar, a distinguished scholar, a fellow of the Kellogg Leadership Program and has served as provost at several institutions of higher learning. He has had teaching, supervisory and other executive experiences in elementary and secondary school systems, research universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges in various parts of the country. He has post doctoral work at Vanderbilt, Harvard, Stanford and Yale Universities. Dr. Stevenson is a published author and a much sought-after lecturer.