Perseverance and the Mars 2020 Mission

Manfred "Dutch" von Ehrenfried worked in the spaceflight, aviation and nuclear fields for about 25 years. He was a member of the original NASA Space Task Group for Project Mercury and was a NASA Flight Controller in the Mission Control Center for many Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Missions. He also worked on some of the Apollo Lunar Experiment Packages. He also worked in the NASA Headquarters Space Station Task Force and the Program Office as a contractor for 10 years.
As the sensor operator on the NASA High Altitude Aircraft, he worked with scientists to determine how best to obtain the data they wanted from their instruments and develop a flight plan to achieve their objectives. The sensors included infrared scanners and spectrometers, radiometers, multispectral cameras, large format cameras and other prototype systems. These flights were from 60,000 to 70,000 feet and required the use of full pressure suits. In conjunction with this work, he was an Apollo Pressure Suit test subject which included tests in the Zero G aircraft, centrifuge, and vacuum chamber. As part of this work, he was the NASA MSC Chief of Science Requirements and Operations Branch. He is currently a Board Member of the Manned Spaceflight Operations Association.