QUESTION:
When/if a manned mission is sent to Mars, what type of people would be
needed on the mission (geologists, botanists, technicians)?? 

ANSWER from Mark Adler on May 19, 1997:
I can only guess, since who will go will depend on many factors including 
what the mission is like, what the objectives are, what is known about Mars at  
the time, what countries and/or companies are paying for it, current social  
and political pressures, etc.  However I think it's clear that those selected  
will have as broad a range of skills as possible while still being very good  
at all of them.  Those skills would include: hands-on engineering with the  
ability to understand complex system interactions and subsystem details, and  
to correctly diagnose and repair or creatively work around problems; deep  
scientific knowledge in areas such as geology, paleontology, physics, physical  
chemistry, and atmospheric science, including the design and execution of  
careful experiments; piloting skills for both eye-hand coordination and  
real-time rapid and correct decision making; and perhaps some medical skills  
for the maintenance of the crew.  The crew would likely each have a different  
mix from such a set to cover all the areas well, but any crew member should be  
able to do passable job in any area.

As important, or perhaps even more important, the crew must have superb  
communication skills and very strong interpersonal skills in order to work as  
a very tight team.  They will have to be selected as a team for their ability  
to work together, even to the extent of predicting each others actions most of  
the time.  They will have to be able to live and work together effectively  
stuck for years inside a school bus.