The Book of Yuri: Make an Impact in 2012!

Fresh off of one trip to the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, I'm starting make my plans for the next. But this trip isn't for "work", it's for Yuri's Night (YN). All of the YN Global Executive Team pours hours of volunteer time into making the World Space Party happen and occasionally we can participate in conferences and events like the National Space Society's International Space Development Conference (ISDC). At ISDC, the YN Exec has their annual Executive Summit to prepare for the following year's activities and a call for new exec. For 2012, the YN Exec is encouraging events to "Make an Impact" on their local communities as they help inspire and educate the world about human spaceflight. My Yuri's Night plans this season will be an intense world tour as I plan to attend four different Yuri's Night events and it is my intention to bring the space swag flown in space by Astronaut Ron Garan to (at least) three of the events.

Yuri's Night 2011 on the International Space Station.
Video link of the crew saying hello for YN 2011!

Last year, Ron flew six YN t-shirts for the crew of the International Space Station to wear for Yuri's Night on April 12th, which was also the 50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight. The crew celebrated with a Russian dinner and a movie! In Ron's acceptance video for the 2011 Spirit of Yuri's Night Award he surprised us by telling us he would be bringing his shirt back to earth (Video on Fragile Oasis). He had mentioned in an email that he would wash the shirt, and jokingly I replied that we could have a "smell space" exhibit. Needless to say, the shirt was not washed as it retained a slight metallic smell of the International Space Station. Ron had also flown three other Yuri's Night items, an invitation placard (post card advert we designed), a sticker, and a blinky LED lapel pin (button). The three objects plus Ron's shirt were sent to me with certificates and I plan to share them with the world. Below the photos of the items are the Yuri's Night events where they will be featured. After Yuri's Night 2012 we will be looking for a host location for the exhibit. Here's where the space swag will be displayed for April 2012:

• APR 7: SpaceUp Boston / Yuri's Night Boston (SpaceUp Registration)
• APR 12: 25th Anniversary of International Space University / Yuri's Night ISU as part of the Explore Mars "International Space Station and Mars Conference - Europe" (Tickets/Details)
• APR 13 (*not on display): Yuri's Night Strasbourg (Details unfolding, check YN website)
• APR 20: Yuri's Night New York City (Website)

Just in case you were wondering about the blog title, I recently saw Book of Mormon on Broadway in New York City (awesome!) and sometimes when I talk about Yuri's Night and human spaceflight it feels like I'm spreading a religion. I guess that's how passion works sometimes! On that note: Look for the Yuri's Night Global Executive Team members at the ISDC this May and register today to help "Make an Impact" on April 12th!

Rock the Planet!
Space!

Ryan

RON'S T-SHIRT

BLINKY LED LAPEL PIN (BUTTON)

SILVER STICKER

INVITATION

Basic requirements met for 2013 NASA Astronaut Selection!

Round 2 <bing!>

This will be my second attempt applying to the Astronaut Corp. In 2008 I was privileged to apply to both the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as I am a dual citizen. I'm was in the heat of my PhD during the application process and if I was selected in 2009 my PhD would have taken a significant blow. I thought that it would be possible to finish in my "spare time" if I was selected, but in retrospect I don't think it would have been that simple and I'm guessing that my final 1.5 years of my degree would have taken 10 years.

This application year is much more exciting because my PhD is complete and I've been working on research at MIT in the Man-Vehicle Laboratory (MVL). Some projects relate to spacesuits (commercial and injury prevention) while others relate to Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), which contain accelerometer, magnetometers and gyroscopes. I've been particularly busy with the IMU's preparing new data for an abstract for the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, which will have to be discussed in another post some time soon. Back to the astronaut selection topic!

The most satisfying start to the application process that a candidate can make is looking at the basic requirements and checking them ALL off! Here's the skinny (details can be found on USAJOBS):

REQUIREMENT	CHECKLIST
EDUCATION
Bachelor's degree in an applicable field (engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics)	Bachelor's degree in an applicable field (engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics) BScH Mechanical Engineering, Queen's University MSS Masters of Space Studies, International Space University MS Aerospace Engineering, Penn State University PhD Aerospace Engineering Sciences, Bioastronautics, University of Colorado at Boulder
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
3 years professional experience (master's degree = 1 year of experience, doctoral degree = 3 years of experience)	+ 2 Masters and PhD (not including other contracts before PhD topic with NASA GSRP GRC) = 5 years + X PRIZE Foundation = 14 months total (4 months for masters so assume ~10 months experience outside) + FMARS = 4 months + work before/after at CU = 8 months + MIT MVL = since Nov. 2010 + time elapsed (assume end of summer 2012) = 22 months = TOTAL = > 3 years :-)
PHYSICAL
Vision correctable to 20/20	I have glasses/contacts that are a basic prescription (no toric lenses or anything special)
Resting blood pressure no more than 140/90	I'm not going to disclose that information, but I'm golden. On a side note, my resting heart rate is considered "athletic".
Height 62-75 inches (due to Soyuz and EVA anthropometric requirements)	68 inches, boo-yah!
U.S. citizenship	Yes sir!

So this dual citizen is ready to apply! Because I will be applying for a few faculty positions in early December, I will begin the Astronaut application afterwards, which is due 27 January 2012. It is essentially the same process as the last call, but I have to re-reduce my 20 page CV down to 6 (I've cut it to 6 a few times for NASA jobs applications, but I need to make sure key information is not neglected on training, experience, and other highlights). In the last round, my references were not checked, meaning that my PhD active status may have eliminated me early (not sure). I'm hoping to make it to the interview level at the very least this selection. In the CSA selection, I was video interviewed making it to the Top 2% out of 5352 candidates! Other information about NASA Astronauts can be found on their website. Also, Brian Shiro usually has excellent updates from a candidate's perspective on his blog: http://astronautforhire.com/. Here's the really cool 2013 Astronaut call video that I got chills watching, especially imagining conducting all those Extravehicular Activities (EVAs), a.k.a. space walks, asteroid bouncing, Moonwalking, and Marstrutting! Of course they will need better short names for asteroids and Mars missions.

Space!

Ryan

Round 2, ring ring! We're in final 15 of Space Wedding Rings Contest. Please RT! Two #SpaceTweeps need your "likes"!

We have made it to round two of the Space Wedding Rings contest to win two gold rings that were flown in space! The rings are valued at $17,000, a price that would be far outside our reach without this great opportunity. Our video is one of 15 finalists, and one of only two videos. We could use your help to win these precious rings. Here's a note from the official notification about selection:

"Entries will be evaluated by the panel of judges and at the same time will be a subject to online voting (“likes” on Facebook). The sum of the judges’ scores and internet votes received will constitute the final score."

So please visit the Space Wedding Rings official gallery on Facebook to vote by "like" and comment on our entry. If you can't visit Facebook, then you can at least see the video on YouTube (comments and "likes" on YouTube will probably help us too). Voting is open until November 20th and the winner will be chosen by December 12!

Facebook voting gallery (we are #9): http://on.fb.me/JenRyanRings

YouTube Video: http://bit.ly/JenRyanSWR

Thank you!

Jen & Ryan