Discovery Online

Timothy Holland (at left, in spacesuit) is one of two graduate students from the University of North Dakota’s Department of Space Studies — Annie Wargetz is the other — who went to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) near

Hanksville, Utah, earlier this year, for field testing of the NDX-1 (North Dakota eXperimental-1), the only university-developed space suit in the United States.

The students were accompanied by Pablo de Leon (right), also from the Department of Space Studies, part of UND’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. De Leon, an Argentine aerospace engineer and senior research associate, is the principal investigator for the space suit project and director of the Human Spaceflight Laboratory at the Odegard School.

Holland, Wargetz and de Leon met up with Crew #112 of the MDRS to conduct geologic testing in the desert area around the station. They gained crucial information on the performance of

the NDX-1 in allowing scientists to perform their exploration tasks.