For the Gemini and Apollo programs, applicants received classes in rocket science and spacecraft engineering and were required to have virtually immaculate health records. They learned to perform some medical interventions and trained in the air, on land and underwater. But everything changes. If you are wondering how to be an astronaut?, the answer could simply be: ?Having a lot of money?.
In an article published in MIT Technology Review, it is explained that what is already known as space tourism will completely change the meaning of traveling to space. They review many projects underway: in the fall, SpaceX (one of Elon Musk’s companies) will send its first mission with an entirely civilian crew. This 2022, the Ax-1 mission, from the company Axiom Space, and also launched by SpaceX, is expected to take off.
Although Elon Musk assures that trips to Mars will not only be for the rich, it is quite clear that without a bank account with many zeros it will be impossible, at least for now, to spend your vacations in space. What the billionaire also made clear is that, in addition to money, you will have to have guts (or unconsciousness) because he is sure that “many people will die in the first steps of exploring Mars.”
Isn’t it even necessary to be an excellent athlete to be a NASA astronaut?
In the aforementioned report, Axiom Space Director of Operations and Training, Derek Hassmann, states that today, “to be a NASA astronaut you don’t even have to be an excellent athlete.” His company will launch the Ax-1 mission, which will be led by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, together with three businessmen who will each pay 45 million euros.
The crew members, they point out at MIT, will begin their training about 7 months before launch. They will conduct drills to learn how to respond to emergency situations (such as loss of cabin pressure), become familiar with the ship (the Crew Dragon) and do parabolic flights. A month before, the training will focus on preparing the launch.
This preparation process, without being, far from it, like the one that NASA astronauts once suffered, is still quite demanding. But, with the passage of time, the proliferation of commercial flights and, above all, the development of spacecraft that will fly on their own, the demands will diminish.
How to be an astronaut in 6 steps
If you still wonder how to be an astronaut? Hassmann answers at MIT: ?I would wait for the training to continue to evolve and become more efficient?. Beth Moses, astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic, also gives her opinion: ?We are moving away from the old paradigm of giant two-year training. I think the commercial industry will reduce it to just a few days of training.
At MIT they dare to take 6 steps to be an astronauts. We will have to wait to see if it really is that easy (with the exception of the financial aspect).
- Get a ticket to travel into space: which will mean, they point out, having to spend tens of millions of euros.
- Pass the health tests: a clean history is no longer required, but, obviously, there are pathologies that are incompatible with traveling in space. For example, those who suffer from heart disease will have a difficult time.
- Getting used to the space: that is, getting over that increasingly shorter training session. Among the tests that, surely, will have to be passed, is that of parabolic flights (which simulate a state of intoxication). Also, of course, relearning how to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom.
- Emergency drills: this is what was mentioned before about the training of crew members in the Ax-1 mission. Knowing how to respond to an emergency in space is a vital step to be an astronaut.
- What to do in space?: Moses points out that training programs have evolved, to the point that each person will buy time and decide what they want to do in space. So that too will have to be rehearsed.
- Be prepared: the last phase will be dumped on the launch. Beyond the physical and technological preparation, if you want to be an astronaut you will need intense psychological work.
