Your Chance to be an Astronaut

codewarrior78411 writes "NASA posted a hiring notice for new astronauts Tuesday, on usajobs.com, seeking for the first time in almost 30 years men and women to fly aboard spacecraft other than the shuttle. The agency is seeking 10 to 15 new faces for three to six-month missions aboard the international space station." Requirements include 'Must be a U.S. citizen between 5-foot-2 and 6-foot-3 in height (to squeeze into Russia's three-passenger Soyuz capsule)' 'At least a bachelor's degree in engineering, a biological or physical science, or mathematics' 'three years of relevant professional experience' and most interestingly 'Vision correctable to 20/20. For the first time, the space agency will consider applicants who have undergone successful refractive eye surgery.'

Comments

Re:I qualify

[Aardpig]

No, I'm sorry, they wanted a degree in engineering, math or science.

Re:One-way or two-way missions?

[Penguinisto]

A guaranteed suicide mission would be worthless on a personal level (unless I had, say, terminal cancer or somesuch, then I'd certainly be game), but more importantly, it would be worthless on a political level. You don't send folks up to die, because the whole point of the exercise is two-fold:

1) science / exploration

2) getting ordinary folks to think "hey - that could be me/my kids up there someday! Cool!"

The reason the Space Race was so popular in the '50s and '60s wasn't so much the 'Red Menace', but ordinary folks (kids chief among them) to fantasize about being spacemen and spacewomen. SciFi was a HUGE factor in having folks dream of space as a destination in the first place.

Sure, the odds of, say, terraforming Mars in my lifetime is pretty much nil, but the ideas of adventure and exploration? Especially in a world that pretty much has had human eyes hovering over nearly every square hectare of it by now? It's a pretty damned cool idea.

/P

Re:(this joke will appear a thousand times)

[phulegart]

So going from one cave to the next is ok. Going from one house to the next is ok. Going from one city to the next is ok. Going from one continent to the next is ok. But work toward going from one planet to another... HELL NO???

If you have a better plan than the one in action involving space stations and the craft they are using (poorly) to make this happen, then by all means, put it into action. Otherwise, shut up. It's not like private enterprise isn't getting involved. It is. If you are one of those people who thinks that the development of the bicycle, the automobile, the boat, and the plane were all great ideas, but we should stop when crossing the boundary of space, stick with living in the basement.

I'm holding out for the security guard position on a space station.

Re:Damn it!

[malilo]

Though my guess is that they're less looking for `Top Gun' types of guys and more for the brainy scientist guys -- but guys who are physically fit too. I'm getting a phD in astrophysics and I compete in triathlons... But I'm not a guy ;)