The Job of Astronaut
How does one become an astronaut? What requirements must be taken to be cast as the lead a mission in orbit, or even planet? It was difficult to answer these questions when NASA, in the now distant 1959, invited the U.S. Army to provide the first astronaut candidates. Lacked experience, without precedent: the only astronauts were described in science fiction books or strips Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.
In the difficult search for the right men to be the first to go into space, NASA had in mind certain features essential to ensure their spatial ability: a technical degree, extensive experience as a pilot of military aircraft and a height not too high that allowed to enter the small cabin of the Mercury capsule. He scored more than 500 men who underwent psychological testing techniques and a specialized medical staff. Finally, many candidates were eliminated and others decided not to continue.
Those who survived were seven: M. Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Virgil Grissom, Donald Slayton, John Glenn, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard. Each flew in a Mercury capsule, with the exception of Slayton that remained on the ground because no satisfactory cardiac conditions. However, Slayton was reinstated in 1975, participating in the Apollo-Soyuz.
This first batch of astronauts, of course, followed by others that NASA has selected the following years for programs Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle. Essentially, the requirements for the first astronauts have not changed until today, although for the Space Shuttle in particular, has lowered the age to thirty-five years. It is not essential to belong to the army, should not be restrictively high and low, new, women have been part of the selection of candidates for orbital missions.
However, the training program is as hard and exhausting as the first time. Essentially, when it is chosen to be an astronaut is like going back to school desks, despite the title already acquired, candidates must reexamine mathematics, meteorology, astronomy, physics, become familiar with computers and study space travel.
However, physical training is the hardest obstacle. To accustom to all the astronauts to weightlessness they will encounter in space, begins to train aboard a plane, a suitably modified C-135 inside, which artificially recreates the absence of gravity for periods longer than half a minute. During the moments of zero gravity, astronauts should practice various types of activity, handling equipment, food and drink. And it’s not easy training yourself to eat and drink in the absence of gravity.
In the days of John Glenn was obviated with a tube similar to toothpaste, which contained food were just paste. Instead, aboard the Shuttle, space technology allows a true miracle of rehydrated freeze-dried food at the time of consumption.
The training of the astronauts, it is obviously much more complex than hitherto described: For longer exercises in simulated conditions of weightlessness using a special pool where astronauts can train even with the model of the space shuttle. No missing after manipulations in the daily flight simulators and specialized courses with computers. And that information has taken an important role, as in many other aspects of our lives.
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Tags: astronomy, Job of Astronaut, mathematics, meteorology, NASA, physical training, physics