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. Later, working for Lockheed MSC, he served as Associate Responsible Engineer in the Space Systems Division on the Agena-D Vehicle Hi-Gain Comm Equipment program, before working 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 be 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.

Alexandru Csete - Communications Team Leader

Alexandru Csete was born in 1975 and made his first contact with communications technology at the age of 12 when his father took him to a local ham radio exhibition. He has been an active ham radio enthusiast ever since, building his own equipment and experimenting with both terrestrial and satellite communications. His interest in space begun in high school and it led him to study physics and astronomy at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. He obtained his M.Sc. in physics in 2002, Thereafter he started a professional career in the European space industry working in several cornerstone space programs like the Automated Transfer Vehicle, which successfully performed the first ever automatic docking to the International Space Station in 2008. His daily work includes engineering, project management, technology infusion, and space technology transfer to other industries. Ever since the early high school days Alex has spent much of his spare time exploring new areas in science and technology complementing the knowledge and experience acquired from school and work. Besides his interests in space Alex has been an active open source software developer since 2001.