Ryan L. Kobrick, Ph.D.

Basic requirements met for 2013 NASA Astronaut Selection!

2011-11-22T11:51:00.005-07:00

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"!

2011-10-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

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

Help us win weddings rings flown in space in the Space Wedding Rings Contest!

2011-10-03T18:17:00.000-07:00

Jen and I have entered an epic competition to win rings flow in space in the Space Wedding Rings Contest! As I'm sure you know, Jen and I are both huge space geeks, so having space flown wedding rings would be a dream come true, and the ultimate unique seal of our unique relationship!

What we need is likes, views, and comments - we know the contest will be partially based on them, but we don’t know if YouTube, Facebook or both will be counted so please do both if its not too much hassle! (its only 1 minute long)

Our video on Facebook

Our video on YouTube

If we make it to the 2nd round, there will be official voting on the company website, and we’ll update everyone through the inter-webs!

Also, please feel free to forward this far and wide to other family and friends! The more people supporting us the better our chances!

Cross your fingers for us! :-)

Thank you!

Ryan & Jen

Best of 2011 Space Shuttle Photos #STS133 #STS134 #STS135

2011-07-16T12:27:00.004-07:00

Best of 2011 Space Shuttle Photos, a set on Flickr.

I've been preparing this set for awhile as I wanted to pick the absolute best of my 2011 experience with the final 3 Shuttle launches in Florida. I wanted to portray the craziness that occurs in the press site, but more importantly the beauty of this historic exploration program. The final photo makes my eyes a little puffy as it portrays one of the crew check-out team (#1) walking out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) after saying his final goodbyes and receiving many congratulations from colleagues and strangers. The Shuttle program has been launching my entire life, I was there for SpaceShipOne's three flights in 2004, and I'm optimistic about the future of human exploration in space.

Space!

Ryan

Personal goals in space industry & #YurisNight #MIT150Explore

2011-04-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

In the midst of MIT150 & Yuri's Night mayhem, I thought I would post my personal goals in the space industry, in particular because they may show up in a newspaper tomorrow morning in Moscow!

My goals in the space industry are simple. I would like to help people experience 'space' and inspire them by those adventures. Not everyone will get to physically go to space because of limitations of health, money or possibly desire, but there are other opportunities that can bring them closer to understanding our future in the cosmos. I've been lucky to experience Mars simulations in the desert and Arctic. From analogue research I've learned that for some people that's as close to going to Mars as they will come, and they've still treasured the experience as their own slice of personal space history.

Click "Read more >>" to continue reading this post!

These are the common threads that connect the projects that I take on, and they motivate me to do my best. Yuri's Night and the MIT150 Exploration Symposium are my current focal points. After April, I'll be looking for more opportunities to leverage being at MIT and working with the amazing Man-Vehicle Laboratory.

One last treat... the International Space Station crew surprised (and maybe shocked) the Yuri's Night Global Executive Team and followers around the world with a special tribute for the 50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight. We were expecting to just share a global recorded message for the 50th, but were given this special gift on our record breaking year. Thank you Expedition 27 Crew! Here's the YouTube vid (located at http://yur.is/ISS2011):

Rock the planet!

Space!

Ryan

April Showers of Celebration

2011-04-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

April will be filled with celebrations and I know that it will flyby in a blur. To avoid such an important month being lost in the noise I've decide to write about this month's pipeline. To summarize: Yuri's Night; Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 launch; MIT150 Exploration Symposium; and the birth of my first niece or nephew.

Click on "Read More" for videos and photos!

COUNTING DOWN TO APRIL 12TH

Yuri's Night has taken a big step forward this year surpassing 300 events globally with two weeks remaining until the main event. This may mean that we get close to 400 events this year, a significant jump from last year's 222. The 50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight is a strong reason why people are interested in our event, but the executive did start earlier than usual to help get events registered, and the giant prizes we are offering for a sweepstakes and an ad campaign are brewing up a lot of positive attention. I'm hoping that the numbers will continue to climb and that we help bring the world together to celebrate space and understand it's importance to the future. There are three key videos that you need to see relating to Yuri's Night 2011. The first is a trailer produced by George Schellenger for our Video Contest; the second is a combination of video clips put together by the Association of Space Explorers at their XXIII Planetary Congress (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); and the third is a short clip from Alexey Leonov's interview where he discusses the world's first extra-vehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalk. I've embedded the three videos for your viewing pleasure. All-in-all my goals for 2011 for event numbers were: I would be happy if we had +1 from 2010 to show growth; and extremely happy if we broke 300. I said if we hit 500 my mind would be blown and that Chris' 1000 events was definitely my dream goal too. So when we hit 300 events with 12 days remaining until Yuri's Night, I declared the 2011 Global Executive Team efforts a smashing success!

ENDEAVOUR'S LAST FLIGHT - STS-134 APRIL 19TH

With a LOT of effort we have a group going down to the watch the STS-134 launch of Endeavour! I'm not going to write much now, because I don't want to jinx it. Below are some photos I took (low res) of Discovery's final launch (STS-133) and Endeavour as it rolled from the Shuttle Processing Facility (SPF) Building 2 to the Vertical Assembly Building (VAB).

MIT150 EXPLORATION SYMPOSIUM APRIL 25-27

Helping coordinate the MIT150 Exploration Symposium "Earth, Air, Ocean and Space: The Future of Exploration" as the Event Director has been 120% of my work load at MIT. Besides writing five papers for the International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES) and working outside of work hours on Yuri's Night, I've been burning the candle at more than both ends - but I'm sure it is going to be worth it! We have 34 speakers involved in our symposium; that's a lot compared to the other five MIT150 symposia. One of the major highlights will be the Astronaut Alum Panel that will feature 11 astronauts! Also, I will be moderating a panel on the Exploration Visions Panel I

and will have the opportunity to show some of my analogue research photos from the arctic, which I'm really excited about! My major goals are to have a full house (1,000 people) and have a global webcast with ~5,000+ viewers.

BABY KOBRICK APRIL/MAY 2011

My great grandfather Arthur Kobrick came to Ellis Island in the early 1900's from the USSR, now Poland, to become the first "Kobrick" in North America. We're not sure exactly how his name was spelt before, or in previous generations. Soon, in about a month, my brother Jason and sister-in-law Mary will give birth to the fifth generation Kobrick and I'm very excited for them! They've decided to wait until birth to know the sex, which I think is cool because I think I would want to do the same. Boy or girl, I'll be getting that kid it's first Leafs jersey and hockey net!

Space!

Ryan

Exploration unplugged

2011-02-18T10:17:00.002-07:00

The next three months will be packed with travel, exploration and excitement. But the past two months of getting settled in Cambridge was definitely highlighted when I proposed to Jen at 00:11 on 1-1-11 on a midnight firework cruise of Boston Harbor (First Night Boston cruise) and she said yes!

She said yes!

Click "Read more" to continue reading this post!

I'll be down in Florida for the STS-133 Shuttle launch (fingers crossed), followed by the 2011 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Orlando where I will be presenting MIT MVL's capabilities for suborbital research. March will be slammed with writing six papers for the 41st International Conference on Environmental Systems and preparing for April, which will include Yuri's Night 2011 (12 April), the 50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight, and MIT150's Exploration Symposium (25-27 April): "Earth, Air, Ocean and Space: The Future of Exploration".

One of the new exciting projects that we unveiled for Yuri's Night is the "Yuri's Night 2011 Video Contest". We have uploaded interviews that I conducted with Jean-Jacques Dordain (Director General of ESA), Bill Nye The Science Guy, Mike Simpson (President of ISU), Alan Stern (SWRI), former Astronaut Joe Tanner (CU-Boulder) and soon to be launched Astronaut Ron Garan! George Schellenger put together an amazing trailer (embedded below) and we had an instant large media hit with Canada's National Post!

I may also be squeezing in trips to Houston and Paris during all of this activity, but I'll save that for another story. I'm excited about the launch, Yuri's Night and the Exploration Symposium so that's more than enough to concentrate on for now!

Space!

Ryan

Hitting the MIT pavement and burning rubber, or abstracts!

2010-11-18T13:58:00.002-07:00

1st walkabout campus for Postdoc (2 Nov 2010)

1st sail on the Charles River (14 Nov 2010!)

My Postdoc at MIT has begun and I've been really busy since my arrival. I've been syncing up with the Man-Vehicle Laboratory (MVL) projects and helping Professor Dava Newman with various proposal work. In addition to the standard MVL I've been helping with the MIT150 symposium titled Earth, Air, Ocean and Space: The Future of Exploration, which will be April 26-17, 2011. Just to point the picture of things I'm working on, here are a list of ICES abstracts that I helped submit this week:

Gilkey,A.L., Kobrick, R.L., Johnson, A.W., Hoffman, J.A., and Newman, D.J. (2011): “Evaluationof a Surface Exploration Traverse Analysis and Navigation Tool” (abstract). 41^stInternational Conference on Environmental Systems 2011, Session ICES401:AMSE/AIAA Extravehicular Activity: Systems, Portland, Oregon, USA. AIAA ControlID: 1018719.
Gilkey,A.L., Melo, P.L., Kobrick, R.L., Kuan, J.-Y., Young, D., and Newman, D.J.(2011): “Using IMU Sensors for Real-Time Manipulation of Robot Spacesuit Testerto Determine Internal Joint Torque Measurements in Spacesuits” (abstract). 41^stInternational Conference on Environmental Systems 2011, Session ICES401:AMSE/AIAA Extravehicular Activity: Systems, Portland, Oregon, USA. AIAA ControlID: 1022036.
Kobrick,R.L., Russ, R.B., and Bailey, T.J. (2011): “Yuri's Night: Linking the WorldTogether with an International Space Celebration” (abstract). 41^stInternational Conference on Environmental Systems 2011, Session ICES308: AIChEEducation Outreach, Portland, Oregon, USA. AIAA Control ID: 1021104.
Kobrick,R.L., Street, Jr., K.W., and Klaus, D.M. (2011): “Custom Scratch Tips forEvaluation of Two-Body Abrasion on Lunar Spacecraft Materials” (abstract). 41^stInternational Conference on Environmental Systems 2011, Session ICES510: AIAALunar and Martian Dust Properties and Mitigation Technologies, Portland,Oregon, USA. AIAA Control ID: 1021777.
Meyen,F.E., Holschuh, B., Opperman, R.A., Kobrick, R.L., Jacobs, S., and Newman, D.J.(2011): “Robotic Joint Torque Testing: A Critical Tool in the Development ofPressure Suit Mobility Elements” (abstract). 41^st InternationalConference on Environmental Systems 2011, Session ICES400: AMSE ExtravehicularActivity: Space Suits, Portland, Oregon, USA. AIAA Control ID: 1022016.

The house/apartment is also slowly taking shape, it's just missing one extremely important part, Jen! She's in Peru for all for November and I look forward to her return. In other news my car finally got registered after a nightmare of events including removing the window tinting, fixing the reverse light sensor and replacing the tires. If they would fix the roads around here than they wouldn't need some of theses standards. It's an adjustment, but soon I'll be calling Cambridge home.

Space!

Ryan

MIT Postdoc! IAC 2010 & Fall Highlights

2010-10-13T13:17:00.001-07:00

The end of the Summer / beginning of the Fall brought high excitement and big news in my career. Just before leaving for Europe I was offered a Postdoc position with Professor Dava Newman at MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology). I decided to make the announcement official at the 2010 IAC (International Astronautical Congress) in Prague, Czech Republic on my Plenary Panel (Plenary #5: Next Generation Visions For Space Operations - Available on YouTube).

The IAC panel was a great experience. The selection of the panel was based first on our 12seconds video submission (my submission - 12seconds is shutting down Oct 22) followed by our 3-minute YouTube video (my submission) answering specific questions about Space Operations. During the panel I mainly spoke of my Mars Society MDRS (Mars Desert Research Station) and FMARS (Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station) experiences. I even dropped a shout-out to Astronauts4Hire, a group I co-founded with the goal of setting standards and training the next generation of commercial astronauts. I even made all the Students and Young Professionals in the audience stand up, which was more half of the attendees of the plenary and ~1/4 of the entire conference, 825 out of 3431! Another BIG highlight from the 2010 IAC was that I was able to kick-start the Yuri's Night Golden Anniversary of Human Spacelfight video project. I was able to interview ESA's (European Space Agency) Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain, Bill Nye The Science Guy, and ISU's (International Space University) President Michael Simpson.

From left: William Gerstenmaier, Aria Iwasawa, Alex Karl, Brian Leathers, Tahir Merali, Lyn Wigbels, Alan DeLuna, Ryan Kobrick (me), Stacey Edgington, and Manfred Warhaut.

Before the IAC I was able to spend the week in Munich (München) with Ralf, Jan, Min and Hannah. There was this little event called Oktoberfest happening (200th year), but the highlight was hiking in Bavaria (Bayern) way above Neuschwanstein Castle for some spectacular views. This castle was said to have inspired Disney's castles at their theme parks around the world. It was an amazing hike up the mountain and we summited Branderschrofen (1879m) on the Tegelberg for a 1100m vertical gain, and 14.7km round trip. I recorded our intense expedition with my iPhone's GPS: http://bit.ly/bG1oHg

Low resolution photo I took with my iPhone of Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany

Pluto will always be a planet to me & a mouse's best friend.

Since the trip I've been busy. Jen and I were searching for an apartment (found!), selling stuff on Craigslist, and getting ready for the big move to Boston/Cambridge on Halloween. We are driving across the country to our new home, or it's probably more accurate to say, our next stop in our adventure together. I spent a few days in Florida with my parents to visit my grandmother Florence Kobrick, Disney for a few days, and then Toronto for a week.

There are over 1000 photos from exploring Bayern, Prague, Florida, Toronto and more to be taken from my last days in Colorado, but eventually I will get them on Facebook. It probably won't happen until after the big move to MIT. Jen will be exploring Peru for all of November so that might be when pictures will get posted. I'm looking forward to my late graduation (Aug. 7) / early birthday (Nov. 5) / pre-Halloween / moving party at Old Chicago's Sat Oct. 30th where we will be completing a World Beer Tour. That means we will have 110 beers from around the world and they will put our name on the Hall of Foam plaque as "Dr. Kobrick & Yuri's kNights". After the party we will explore Pearl St., which is famous for it's Halloween Saturday night festivities. What ever happened to Oct. 31st being the big night? I guess that's the "just for kids" version, similar to how Yuri's Night is "on or around" April 12th. Jen and I hit the road the next morning. Bad idea or brilliant idea?

My next post might be about the work that I'm involved with at MIT and life in Baaah-ston! Until then, if you crave more news, follow my brain-blurps on Twitter: RyInSpace.

Space!

Ryan

CUSEDS Certificate of Appreciation

2010-09-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

At the CUSEDS semester kick-off meeting for Fall 2010, Laura presented me with this certificate of appreciation. Apparently they had been waiting since May to give it to me. CUSEDS was an important part of my academic career at CU-Boulder and I'm lucky to have had such a stellar group of friends.

Diploma Day, complete with a lovely piece of paper

2010-08-10T10:55:00.001-07:00

My forth degree, a symbol of all of my academic career.

Yesterday I picked up my PhD diploma. It was a little anti-climatic. I wasn't expecting a parade or the Chancellor to come out and hand it to me, but maybe a free t-shirt or sticker. Previous PhD students in my office seemed to all have the "Ph-inally Ph-inisheD" bumper sticker. I wouldn't put it on my car, but I think I deserved one after 5 years at CU.

Since there is no summer commencement ceremony, I 'walked' in May, which was great because my parents and Jen's family were able to come to the two-days of events. They should have a reception for August graduates.

Now I await being contacted from the CU Alumni Association, my fourth Alma Mater, but I know I can't help them until I pay back my student loans and maybe get one of those 'jobs' I've heard so much about. I have some solid leads in the space industry and I hope one of those becomes my next adventure on my career path.

Space!

Ryan

Next possible installment: Around the World as a Graduate Student

Yes that is a tassel stuck in my beard - May Commencement

A Recap of News from 2009-2010

2010-08-01T22:42:00.002-07:00

Doctor. Doctor.

Ryan's final thesis has been submitted and approved by the Graduate School. He is officially 'not a student' anymore (diploma pick up is Aug 9th). He can now add catchphrases to his repertoire such as "Trust me, I'm a Doctor!"

Executive Decision

On July 1st, Canada Day, Ryan was named Executive Director of Yuri's Night. He will lead a volunteer team of over 30 people around the globe in preparation for the 2011 events, which will be the 50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin 12 April 1961) and the 30th Anniversary of the first Space Shuttle flight (STS-1 Columbia 12 April 1981). The full press release is available online (URL) as well as the announcement of the new Global Executive Team (URL).

Doctor Kobrick!

Ryan successfully defended his PhD Dissertation on April 27th, 2010. After some minor edits to the final thesis document, Ryan will have completed his Doctoral degree! His upcoming plans include attending the STS-132 launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis with the NASA Tweetup, attending the International Space Development Conference in Chicago with the Yuri's Night Global Executive Team, and attending AIAA's 40th International Conference on Environmental Systems in Barcelona to present a paper on three-body lunar dust abrasion using simulants and co-chairing a track on Extra Vehicular Activities. During the summer Ryan will seek his next adventure and job in the space industry, focused on human exploration.

Yuri's Night Boulder 2010 & Global Executive Team

Yuri's Night Boulder was bigger than ever in 2010 with approximatley 500 patrons attending the free concert held at the Lazy Dog on Pearl St. 50 souvenir pint glasses were handed out and three bands rocked the stage: H1N1, Areopagitica, and Other Side of Clearview. A Space Costume Contest was also held to hand out prizes form stores in the community. In addition to being the Event Organizer to Boulder for the fifth consecutive year, Ryan served on the Global Executive Team as Project Manager. Ryan contacted key personnel from the space industry (and a few form outside) and produced an iTunes Podcast with video toasts celebrating the 10th Annual Yuri's Night. The complete listings is online and all videos are free to download.

D-FENSE! Or is it D-FENCE!
Journal papers are being written and Ryan is targeting late April for his Ph.D. Dissertation Defense. His dissertation will be near complete at that point pending edits and suggestions from his committee, but technically it will not be due until July 16 with an official graduation date of August 2010. Since there is no summer ceremony he will walk in the spring commencement in May with his family in town. Ryan will be Dr. Ryan by the end of May!

Prime Time Moderation

Ryan co-moderated the "Plenary Two: Entering the Workforce and Strengthening the Global Community" at the 60th International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Republic of Korea. The panel was comprised of four students and three young professionals, who shared their accomplishments and hopes for the future. More info located at URL. YouTube video of the session at URL.

NASA Ambassador Interview on NASA.gov
Ryan's NASA Ambassador interview can be found online at URL

Summer 2009 & NASA Education Involvement

Ryan completed his second 10+ week visit to NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) to work on his lunar dust abrasion research during the summer of 2009. During his time at Glenn he was selected to participate in: NASA's STS-127 Pre-Launch Education Forum "Strengthening the STEM Workforce: Strategies for Engaging Generation Y" in Cape Canaveral, FL; NASA's Student Roundtable Discussion with NASA Education Coordinating Committee at NASA GRC; and NASA's Student Roundtable Discussion with Charles Bolden & Lori Garver at NASA GRC.

ICES Paper Selected for SAE Transactions Journal

Ryan's paper with Dr.'s David Klaus & Ken Street "Developing Abrasion Test Standards for Evaluating Lunar Construction Materials" (2009-01-2377) was selected at the 39th International Conference on Environmental Systems (Savannah, GA) for SAE's Transactions Journal.

BACK TO BACK TO BACK Hockey Champions

Hops on Ice takes it's third consecutive YMCA championship!

NASA Student Ambassador

Ryan was named a student ambassador for NASA early in 2009 (Certificate).

Yuri's Night Boulder 2009 a huge success! The Yuri's Night Boulder team was able to educate thousands about human spaceflight and the international achievements represented by Yuri’s Night. Thursday night (April 9th) approximately 400 patrons came to The b.side Lounge for our three bands: Areopagitica, Other Side of Clearview, and The Piggies. On Saturday (April 11th) the team helped fuel the largest Astronomy Day to date at Fiske Planetarium with an estimated attendance of 750-1000. The third event participation for Yuri’s Night Boulder was at the Russian Booth at the International Festival in the UMC. This year there were 216 events in 46 countries, on 6 continents, and in 2 “worlds”.

Astronaut journey completed for 2009 round. In the Canadian Space Agency's Astronaut Recruitment Campaign Ryan reached the Top 2% (final 79 of 5,352) with a video interview. Ryan did not reach the NASA interview phase. Ryan commented "I'm only 29 and I'm happy to have made it this far while still working on my Ph.D. Once I complete my degree next year and gain more industry experience, I should be in a strong position to apply again and again."

Astronauts4Hire Launches!

2010-04-12T14:28:00.015-07:00

launch@astronauts4hire.org

April 12, 2010

Astronauts4Hire Launches, Selects Initial Candidates for Commercial Scientist Astronauts

Phoenix, Arizona - Astronauts4Hire, a new collaborative effort to support and develop a pool of qualified, commercial scientist astronauts announces today the launch of its website (www.astronauts4hire.org) and selection of 11 initial astronaut candidates. The candidates, selected from industry and academia, bring with them a wide variety of experience and expertise, representing a diverse set of disciplines. Pooling their collective resources and talents, and leveraging their common passion and commitment for space exploration, the candidates have created Astronauts4Hire to support the emerging suborbital research industry. On a day that marks the anniversaries of the first human to orbit the Earth and the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle, this announcement marks a push towards a new era of more accessible commercial space research and exploration.

Astronauts4Hire is soliciting sponsors and donors to enable the candidates to undergo spaceflight training and obtain other pertinent experience that will increase their competitiveness as astronauts-for-hire by those private firms conducting scientific research on suborbital platforms. The initial target is to obtain $40,000 USD which will be used to allow the initial astronaut candidates to take part in the three-day Suborbital Scientist Training Program at the NASTAR Center in Pennsylvania. The course includes medical screening, classroom preparation, centrifuge and hypobaric chamber training.

Additional astronaut candidates and training course targets will be identified as the effort moves forward. Astronauts4Hire intends to become the one-stop shop for those seeking qualified, experienced professionals to conduct microgravity and other research on suborbital, and later orbital platforms. The website will eventually evolve to allow anyone who has the dream of becoming a commercial astronaut to create an online profile listing their experience and training, allowing them to see how they rank against other prospective astronauts. The site will become an interactive tool, providing a forum for discussion and collaboration.

The initial Astronauts4Hire are:

Jim Crowell - Student, Arizona State University
Bruce Davis - Ph.D. Student, University of Colorado
Kristine Ferrone - ISS Flight Controller, NASA JSC
Amnon Govrin - Software Engineer, Spacepirations.com
Chad Healy - MS Student, University of Colorado
Ryan Kobrick - Ph.D. Candidate, University of Colorado
Joseph Palaia - Vice President, 4Frontiers Corp
Luís Saraiva, Ph.D. - Neuroscientist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Brian Shiro, Geophysicist - NOAA
Laura Stiles - Ph.D. Student, University of Colorado
Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto - NASA LROC Coordinator, Arizona State University

For more information about Astronauts4Hire, its initial astronaut candidates, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit: www.astronauts4hire.org

- End -

Interested parties can download and distribute the press release as a MS Word or Adobe PDF document.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/astronauts4hire

Ummm, so I don't blog much. But I Twitter!

2008-12-30T17:05:00.005-07:00

Here are some news highlights with links of things going on in my life:

John A. Vise Memorial Scholarship 2009 Recipient (URL)
Discovery [Channel] Space (11 Dec 2008): How to Fake a Mission to Mars On Earth (URL)
Denver Post (5 Dec 2008): ARCS scholarships help CU students shoot for the moon (URL)
CU NEWS (13 Nov 2008 with video segment): Aspiring Astronaut Among CU Students to Receive Science Scholarships Nov. 17 (URL)
Astrobiology Magazine (20 Oct 2008): Simulating Survival in Space (URL)
Interview in SPACE.com article (16 Oct 2008): A Major Moon Dust-Up (URL)
Blog on Discovery [Channel] Space (25 Sept 2008): Next Generation: From the Earth to the Moon… With a Few Stops Along the Way (URL)
Terres Arctiques (Sept 2008 French video): Expérience scientifique à dimension humaine (URL)
Terres Arctiques (Sept 2008 French images): Expérience scientifique à dimension humaine (URL)
Arctic Territory (Sept 2008 English images): A Scientific and Human Experiment (URL)

My first blog entry, not last, but don't expect much!

2007-06-08T20:19:00.004-07:00

What rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs, its Blog, Blog, Blog!

Space!

Ryan

YouTube: LINK

FMARS Blog (my entries): LINK

Facebook: LINK

My YouTube Video Collection