Ana Pires

Ana Pires is a Researcher at INESC TEC’s Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems. She is involved in several sustainable sea/marine mining projects, geotechnologies, geoengineering, and georesources. Her research is focused on Space-Earth-Sea interaction, Space Resources, Space Mining, geotechnics,geophysics, and the development of geo-technologies or geo-robotics for Space exploration. She was also the first Portuguese woman to finish with success the Scientist-Astronaut Program, under the framework of Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) supported by NASA's Flight Opportunities. Ana Pires is passionate about exploring extreme environments. She is a Specialist Diver (SSI Certification) and she was also selected to be part of the main crew 281 of the "Pegasus" team to carry out an analog mission in the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), located in Utah (USA), owned, and operated by the Mars Society. Since 2018 she has made efforts to promote human space flight, astrogeology, technology, robotics, and STEAM outreach activities in Portugal. Currently, she is the Co-Chair of Knowledge Management of “Space For All Nations|SFAN”, an initiative developed under the scope of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS).