July 21, the last flight of shuttle Atlantis, marked the end of the space program—but that doesn’t mean the ambitions of aspiring astronauts should fall out of style like the shuttle, according to N.C . Space Grant Director and associate vice chancellor for research development, Chris Brown.
When NASA began in 1959 they first selected astronauts from the military, accepting 7 men with jet aircraft experience. Over the years the requirements shifted from just being able to fly spacecraft to astronauts conducting experiments and research in space. Six years after selecting the first pilots with “the right stuff,” NASA appointed 6 scientist astronauts with doctorate degrees.
According to Brown aspiring astronauts no longer need to worry about being “superhuman,” as Hollywood portrayed the first space explorers, but rather scholarly and motivated.
The following are Brown’s tips for achieving the competitive edge.
1. Stay in school
“Astronauts are expected to have very high levels of education, so stay in school and get an advanced degree,” Brown said. “Engineering is very big and medicine is important too. Computer science, astrophysics, anything…but as long as it’s an advanced degree is key.”
According to Brown, NASA doesn’t expect everyone to be a test or fighter pilot. Astronauts don’t watch movies at the International Space Station but rather carry out rigorous research.
“You have to have the mindset of a scientist,” Brown said.
2. Stand out
A masters degree, doctorate or ability to fly will not make an application stick out. Nor will being a pilot or military commander provide an edge. Of the current 95 American astronauts, 62 have experience as pilots and high ranking officers in the military.
“If you are going to be competing with all the other thousands of people that want to be astronauts, you have to have done something that makes you stand out,” Brown said. “You climbed Everest. You proved that you can withstand hardships.”
3. Stable mental health
The stress of handling a piece of equipment like a space shuttle is nerve wrecking—Endeavour cost more than $1.7 billion according to NASA.
According to Brown, mental health is a large factor in recruitment.
“The mental and psychological aspect is important in the case that people spend long, stressful periods of time together and need to cooperate,” Brown said.
4. Be a team player
Claustrophobia and anxiety are prevailing factors, but under stress astronauts need to work as a cohesive group to get up to space and back to earth safely.
“In the past, NASA did something called ‘select out,'” Brown said. “They would have a whole bunch of people that are suitable and then they would kick people out of their pool because they were a little deficient here or there. Whereas the Russians would ‘select in’ and look at the characteristics of a whole crew and see how complimentary they were to each other. The crew was seen as a team.”
In the past, NASA selected for characteristics like height and weight, but today the requirements have relaxed, Brown said.
“In the old days, all the test pilots were short.” Brown said.
They were all under 5 feet 11 inches, which NASA required. Very few of them were scientists. According to Brown, the guys with the right stuff would be the odd ones out of the pool of candidates today.
