Ryan Kobrick: PhD candidate in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder

Degrees: Bachelors, Mechanical Engineering, Queen's University; Masters in Space Studies, Intentional Space University; Masters, Aerospace Engineering, Pennsylvania State University.

Coolest space experience so far: It definitely involved SpaceShipOne and working with the X-Prize Foundation, but I can't decide between the unveiling in 2003, the first 100-km. test flight, or that my Engineering Iron Ring was on the second of two winning flights for the Ansari X-Prize. The X-Prize intern team liked to say that "we're don't read history, we write it."

My experience this summer on Devon Island, Nunavut, at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) has been amazing and insightful to mission operations for long duration space exploration, and how analog stations can play a vital role in humankind's return to the Moon, on to Mars, and beyond.

How did you get interested in space? Ever since I was a young boy looking up at the stars I knew I wanted to go there. My earliest memories of space include a trip to KSC [Kennedy Space Center] where I was busy trying to see alligators out the bus window and watching the Star Wars movies and playing with the toys.

What have you learned from living on Martian time this summer in the Arctic?

Living on Mars Time for 37 sols (Martian days), which is 24 hours and 39 minutes per sol, has been a very insightful experience for what a future Mars crew would experience. The first week was a bit rough and it felt like we were constantly battling jet lag, being hungry and sleepy at the wrong times. But we adapted, as humans do. We lived with the operational hardships of being completely out of sync, but also benefited from being able to control our nightly visual cues since we had 24 hours of sunlight all summer.

How do you guys resolve interpersonal upsets in the hab? Our human-factors researchers must have been really disappointed with the F-XI LDM crew, since we did not have any major interpersonal conflicts. A crew of seven highly motivated academics with the same output goals can achieve great things. We all wanted the most amount of science to be achieved during the mission and to be able to discuss the findings in scientific reviewed journals. In addition, we want to tell our story to the world to inspire, educate, and motivate everyone about human space exploration and of course about our own planet.

Who are the people you admire most? I admire my parents the most. They are hard workers and seem to know everything about everything. I think the quest for knowledge and understanding, to want to fix things, and the thirst for adventure and exploration are family genes.

What other space activities have given you the most pride? Academically I have tried my hardest to focus all of my graduate studies on human spaceflight. My ISU masters project/thesis was the X-Prize Cup, where competitors would come together to race rockets and compete for prizes in an annual venue...This year will be the third X-Prize Cup in New Mexico, and yes, I actually squirted a few tears when the gates opened during the first event in 2005. Now I'm working on my PhD to characterize lunar dust and help mitigate issues that were encountered by the Apollo astronauts.  I proud of my involvement with Yuri's Night over the past five years, where the events around the world have brought many people together to celebrate the birth of human spaceflight and our future in space.

Where do you see yourself in 20 years? I hope to be taking the first slap shot on the Moon ,in-between collecting geology samples or fixing the Moon-Terrain-Vehicles at the South Pole station in Shackleton Crater. I think that I will always be working to help humans get into space, either via astronaut training or through technology development, but before I can do that I would like to experience it myself so I can be a good coach and tell my story to the world.

Why you should watch:  Ryan is Canadian and American, double trouble!  He is very committed and tenacious.  I am not looking forward to facing off against him at a lunar rink... (okay, maybe I am).