Huntress is currently the director of the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, located in Washington, DC, where he leads an interdisciplinary group of scientists in the fields of pressure science, astrobiology, petrology and biogeochemistry.

Before assuming this role last September, he served for five years as NASA's associate administrator for the Office of Space Science, with responsibility for all of NASA's space-science programs: planetary exploration, astrophysics, space physics and the emerging field of astrobiology.

During his tenure, these NASA programs produced numerous major discoveries, just as NASA's "faster, better, cheaper" initiatives dramatically reduced mission costs and significantly increased mission launch rates. Huntress was also director of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division from 1990 to 1993 following two years as special assistant to NASA's Director of the Earth Science and Applications Division.

Since 1981, Coleman has been president and chief executive officer of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), a non-profit corporation chartered to facilitate scientific research, technology development, and education in space-related fields. USRA is owned by eighty universities and operates research institutes and programs in nine sites nationwide. He is also an emeritus professor of Space Physics at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he has enjoyed a successful space-science and research career for over 30 years.

"The addition of Wes and Paul to our Board greatly strengthens our corporate strategic planning capability as we continue to implement our vision of providing low cost, commercial deep-space missions and services, microspacecraft, small-satellite systems and low-cost launch services," said Jim Benson, SpaceDev chairman and CEO.

SpaceDev is a two-year-old, 70-person company based in Poway, in northern San Diego County. Co-located in the new Poway facilities are the corporate offices, its wholly owned subsidiary Integrated Space Systems (ISS) and the firm's Space Missions Division. The company's other wholly owned subsidiary, Space Innovations, Limited (SIL), is in Newbury, England. The ISS team is, among other endeavors, investigating applications of hybrid rocket technology as exclusive holders of the intellectual and material property rights of the former American Rocket Company (AMROC).

The Space Missions Division is defining various low-cost, near-term commercial deep-space mission opportunities, including its commercial Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP), and recently completed a study of low-cost Mars micromissions for JPL. SIL is under contract to build an Earth orbiting microsatellite for Australia and sells a variety of low-cost, small-satellite subsystems and ground-tracking equipment to clients in Europe, North America and Japan.

Huntress began his career in the 1960s as a space scientist, and is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at JPL, with which he has had a long connection. He holds a B.S. in chemistry and Ph.D. in chemical physics, with extensive research interests in comets and related phenomena.

"I share SpaceDev's vision for developing the commercial potential of deep space exploration. The 20th Century has seen the enormous growth of air commerce, and I believe the 21st Century will see the development of commerce in space. I join the Board to assist SpaceDev in realizing that potential," said Huntress.

Coleman has held key space-science research roles on many Earth-orbiting and deep-space missions destined to Venus, the Moon, Mars and Jupiter. His research interests address empirical and theoretical studies of charged particles and magnetic fields in space, particularly space plasmas and planetary magnetic fields. He holds BSE degrees in mathematics and physics, an MS in physics and Ph.D. in space physics.

"I look forward to working with Jim Benson and Wes Huntress and the other members of the board to realize the great commercial potential of operations in space," said Coleman.

In the private sector, Coleman is a consultant to industry on research and development and to the financial community on high-technology enterprises. He is a director of Scyld Computing Corp., Space Operations International LLC, Axcess Inc., and Quantrad Sensor Inc., and a former director of CACI International Inc., Fairchild Space and Defense Corp., One Room Systems Inc., and Southeast Interactive Technology Fund LLC. He is a former member of the boards of scientific and technical advisors of Orbital Sciences Corp., the External Tanks Corp., LunaCorp, and Micro-Satellite Launch Systems Inc.