Bakari Mensah

Bakari Mensah leads Dropship Landing Certification from the Arsia Plateau training pad on Mars. He has made more than 900 landings in the Cascade Dropship, including descents to new colony sites and two seasons supporting settlements on Titan.

Bakari is a specialist in landing through Martian dust and brownout, and he built the course's descent scenarios from real hazard maps. He also represents the academy on the Mars Settlement Landing Board.

Bakari also trains settlement engineers to prepare rough landing sites and brief incoming crews. He is a strong advocate of aborting early, and his favourite debrief question is simple: when did you know you should go around?