Ryan W. Snow
Marine Specialist
National Undersea Research Center
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
515 Caribbean Drive
Key Largo, FL 33037
ryansnow1@hotmail.com

I was fortunate to grow up in bustling Montpelier, VT nestled in the Green Mountains. It's actually a quiet capital city of about 9,000 people. Being a kid in Vermont let me learn to enjoy lots of outdoor activities. In school I liked science classes and anything that had to do with people doing exciting things in interesting places.

The desire to do both led me to attend the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO. While I was there I completed an aerospace engineering degree and on the side I did a little skiing. I was able to take some classes that had to do with what it takes to keep people alive in space as well as underwater. I thought that this area of science was fascinating and it led me to learn how to scuba dive. Through diving I learned about the Aquarius Habitat and I applied for an internship through the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society. They accepted me and sent me to Aquarius in Key Largo, FL during the summer of 2000.

Having graduated from college a few months earlier I was eager to take on new challenges and I convinced them to hire me after the internship was over. While working for Aquarius over the last three years I've learned a tremendous amount about everything from seamanship to saturation diving.

Of course I was still very interested in space and what was happening with NASA's human spaceflight program. To my excitement NASA became interested in working with Aquarius on some training and science purposes. I was lucky to get selected to saturate on a few of the missions we have done with NASA. Each time it is exciting and challenging and always inspires me to never stop learning. Soon I hope study more about what it takes to put people in extreme environments. I'm looking forward to this mission, my sixth saturation, and I hope it won't be my last.