Dr. David Livingston, and “The Space Show”, welcomes back DR. VADIM RYGALOV of the UND Space Studies faculty, and graduate student ANNIE WARGETZ who will be discussing her research regarding dietary impacts on crew performance levels in Confined and isolated habitat and the application of this research to human spaceflight.  This show will be live on Sunday, Nov. 4 , 2012 program from 12:00-1:30 PM PST (3:00-4:30 PM EST, 2:00-3:30 PM CST).  Listen live at thespaceshow.com

Annie Wargetz is a passionate space cadet who is currently a graduate student working towards a Master of Science in Space Studies at the University of North Dakota.  She is focusing on the history, policy, psychology, and physiology of human spaceflight and will be defending her thesis in the spring on how to select and train a crew for a long-duration planetary mission.  She is a research assistant in the Human Spaceflight Laboratory at UND and volunteers as the Fundraising and Outreach Coordinator for the UND Observatory.  She also recently accepted the role of Advisor for the Astrosociology Research Institute and has joined the Outreach Committee at UND’s chapter of the American Meteorological Society.  Annie has presented her poster on crew accommodations design for the Human Spaceflight Laboratory’s Planetary Exploration Initiative at several conferences, including the recent North Dakota EPSCoR conference.  Annie gained more than eight years of experience in education/public speaking in the software industry before deciding to pursue her dreams of a career in space and its related industries.  Prior to that, Annie graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, where she focused on corporate communications, public relations, and advertising and minored in mathematics.  Annie speaks English, French, and Spanish and hopes to someday soon be fluent in Russian, and also aspires to become the next “Carl Sagan” who gets the public excited about space once again.  You can find Annie on Twitter as @SETIgal1124. This summer, Annie worked with Dr. Vadim Rygalov at the UND Department of Space Studies to research the effects of food and nutrition on human performance levels in extreme isolated and confined environments, the topic for which she is present on today’s show.

Vadim Y. Rygalov, Ph.D. in Physics & Mathematics, is a biophysicist and has worked in the area of closed ecological systems (CES) studies and bio-regenerative life support since 1979 after his graduation with a MS in Ecological Biophysics from Krasnoyarsk State University (KSU), Central Siberia, USSR. He is an Associate Professor at the UND John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, Space Studies Department, and a consultant for  NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Space Life Sciences Lab. During his education in KSU in 1969 – 1977, he was participating in a series of pilot researches related to investigation of human physiological and psychological limits. He received his Ph.D. for work in ‘Systems Analysis of Environment/Organism Optimal Interaction: Sea Macro-Algae Growth and Development’ in 1987 from Institute of Biophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Krasnoyarsk, USSR) and Pacific Research Institute of Oceanography & Fishery Sciences Ministry of Fishery Industry USSR (Vladivostok, USSR). His current interests involve studies of closed ecological system functioning and their applications for human life support in space, limits of stable human/environment interactions, human factor limits & control algorithms in high risk operations, etc. He is also interested in applications of developed technologies for human life support in unusual (primarily extreme) environments. He spent the years 1999 – 2004  at the Space Life Sciences Lab at NASA Kennedy Space Center working with low pressure space greenhouse prototypes.

Listeners can talk to Dr. Rygalov, Annie, or the host and express their views calling toll free: 1 (866) 687-7223, and by sending e-mail during the program using drspace@thespaceshow.com, thespaceshow@gmail.com, or dmlivings@yahoo.com. You can also use Skype from your computer with a headset. The I. D. is thespaceshow. Please note that Skype is only available when announced as such at the beginning of each program. Please note the toll free number is only available during a live Space Show program. At all other times, it is disconnected.