FMARS-10 Crew Biographies Andy Wegner I grew up on a small dairy farm - mostly gravel hills and tamarack swamp -- in northern Wisconsin. I am the father of five (the youngest a senior in college). My professional training is in chemistry, and most of my career was with Kimberly-Clark Corporation, in analytical chemistry (gas & liquid chromatography, infrared spectroscopy, environmental analysis) -- at the bench and in management (of an analytical chemistry group and of an R&D materials development effort). I saved my money, retired early, and have been trying to follow meaningful (and fun) pursuits since then. They have included writing, genealogy, remote backpacking, travel, substitute teaching, political action, restoration of a 118 year-old one-room school, and most recently: construction of a railroad trestle-shaped arbor out of railroad ties, and a rock garden out of glacial till. I served as XO on Crew 32 earlier this year. I have had a lifelong interest in space exploration. At age 62, I will miss the cut to actually walk on Mars, but I hope I can contribute in some small way to my children having that chance. There are many reasons -- both practical and esoteric, both societal and scientific -- for humans to go to Mars; but for me, a gut reaction, it is that our very destiny as a species draws us outward - and the destiny of a species that has come this far in explaining its own existence, and that of the universe that yielded us, is no small matter! The time to begin the journey is now!
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