Jeff Qualls is a chief editor for a medical certification board. He studied English and political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a Bachelor's of Arts degree. Jeff has been an avid follower of human and robotic space exploration since the Apollo 8 mission to orbit the moon when he was 10 years old. He managed to talk his parents into driving him from their home in Mississippi to Florida to witness the Apollo 15 liftoff when he was 13. Around this same time, in the pre-internet days, he was so intent on following Mariner 9's mission to become the first spacecraft to orbit and map Mars that he got on the mailing list to receive regular mission bulletins (all of which he still has in his space collection today). He continues to follow human missions to the ISS and robotic missions to the planets, and believes we should increase our efforts to explore the solar system and beyond. Jeff has a passion for space exploration and enjoys talking about it with other people. He believes that the more people understand about what we are doing and hope to do in space, and the many things we have learned because of our efforts, the more they will support our space program.