NASA Tells Prospective Astronauts what Qualities They Need to Travel to Space
Nasa has offered some advice to those hoping to follow in Tim Peake’s footsteps and blast into space as an astronaut.
In a blog post, titled ‘Signs You Might Be Ready to Apply to be an Astronaut’, the space agency gives a few indicators that you might be astronaut material.
First and foremost, they stress that you have to be okay with having roomates – even though the International Space Station is about as long as a football field, it’s quite cramped inside, and astronauts have to share the tiny space with other crew members for extended periods.
US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, at the time of writing, are spending their 263rd day in space together in the ISS – if you’re the kind of person who could cope with living in a space station with the same person for around nine months, then you might make a good astronaut.
This issue of how humans cope when kept in very close quarters with one another is a major source of study for Nasa, who will have to ensure the astronauts’ quality of life on upcoming long trips to Mars.
They also, wisely, told potential astronauts that they can’t be afraid of heights – the ISS is around 250 miles from the Earth’s surface, and is constantly falling towards it. Because it’s moving sideways so quickly, however, it doesn’t come crashing down to Earth.
Importantly, Nasa says candidates have to want to be on the cutting edge of science – when they’re up in the ISS, astronauts spend a lot of time conducting experiments in physics, biology and many other disciplines.
As the qualification criteria on the astronaut application page says, candidates must have a degree in engineering, biological, physical, or computer science, or maths.
After that, candidates either need at least three years of professional experiment (or 1,000 hours of flying time in jet aircraft), and advanced degrees are desired – so as well as explorers, astronauts are scientists too.
