the study was partly funded by nasa 's ames research center . ; stanford team ; the mars exploration plan was drafted by graduate students in a stanford space systems engineering class , assisted by : ; -lrb- box -rrb- bruce lusignan , professor of electrical engineering ; -lrb- box -rrb- emery reeves , a former vice president of trw 's spacecraft engineering division ; -lrb- box -rrb- thomas binford , an expert in robotics ; -lrb- box -rrb- larry colin , former chief of the space science division at nasa/ames