Ben Nickell is a systems administrator at the physics and astronomy department at Idaho State University and a snowboard instructor at Pebble Creek Ski Area. In addition to a love of the outdoors, Mr. Nickell has a love of space exploration which he has cultivated through participation in the Idaho Rise near space balloon program funded by the Idaho Space Grant consortium. In June 2009, he attended the RockOn! Workshop at NASA Wallops assisting a team in the construction of a payload for a Terrier-Orion rocket. Mr. Nickell also enjoys working on remote sensing and imaging platforms and software.