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Currently in orbit, theÌýEmirates Mars Mission Hope spacecraft will spend two yearsÌýgathering crucial science data on the planet's weather and climate systems.ÌýIn this episode of Buff Innovator Insights, we’ll learn from engineering and management team members—and married dynamic duo—Heather ReedÌýandÌýPete WithnellÌýabout the extraordinary international collaboration that made this mission possible and more terrestrial effects of the mission on their family.

Terri Fiez

Hello. I'm your host Terri Fiez, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the ºÚÁÏÉçÇøÍø. Welcome to Buff Innovator Insights. This podcast features some of the most innovative ideas in the world and introduces you to the people behind the innovations from how they got started to how they are changing the future for all of us.

Today, we'll meet Heather Reed and Pete Withnell, Engineering and Science team members for the Emirates Mars Mission project. Since 2014, Reed and Withnell have worked side by side with colleagues at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics or LASP and dozens of scientists and engineers from the United Arab Emirates on this extraordinary international collaboration. We'll hear about Heather Reed's remarkable journey from a small town in South Dakota to ºÚÁÏÉçÇøÍø education, and eventually a career in space exploration at LASP. We'll learn about Pete Withnell's evolving interest in physics, engineering and space, which also brought him to Boulder and LASP.

Since they met and married along the way, we'll also hear how the years' long project became a part of their lives as a family. Not only did the pair work on the mission from beginning to end, we'll also hear about the family's unconventional road trips, the colleagues and friends that became so important to them personally and professionally, and how the improbable COVID pandemic made the mission's success that much more remarkable. Let's meet Heather Reed and Pete Withnell. Hi, Heather and Pete. Thank you for joining me today.

Pete Withnell

Hi, Terri. It's a pleasure to be here.

Heather Reed

Yeah. Thanks for inviting us.

Terri Fiez

So, you both had interesting paths to Boulder. Heather, you grew up in New Underwood, South Dakota, population, 514, and graduated from a high school class of 14 and notably as valedictorian. Pete, you spent your early years in Long Island and England before settling in Indiana. So, first, Heather, can you share with us what connected you to Boulder in your teens and how that eventually brought you to ºÚÁÏÉçÇøÍø to get your bachelor's and master's in engineering?

Heather Reed

Yeah. So, my high school led by my band director, the eighth grade class, I was part of the high school band at that time, we all came to Elitch Gardens to perform at Elitch's on one Saturday. So, that was a Denver trip that encouraged us to go see a different and much bigger city. When we were at Elitch's, my friend and I met someone who was actually a freshman at the University of Colorado, and he had a Wright Scholarship from NASA, and he was working for UCAR. So, at the time, he was working on a NASA program, supporting scientists, doing engineering. That was probably the first time I came to understand, oh, someone that young could be in a space industry, and look, they're doing this inside of a school environment. So, that was pretty exciting to me. I said, "Oh, I like math. I like engineering, and maybe I should check this out."

So, he and I ended up being pen pals for the rest of my high school career. As he was getting his undergrad and grad degree, and at that time, I thought, okay, well let me just go see what engineering is. So, I did look into aerospace engineering, and CU was one place. There was a place in Florida, a couple other places that I checked out, but it was just an easy transition for me to come so close from South Dakota to Boulder. I had a few family members in the Denver area, and I really wanted to come here for aerospace engineering. So, that's how I end