Astronaut

[MJR]

I will most likely enroll in the Air force. Earlier in this thread someone was saying if Orbiter would help you as an astronaut. My perspective is, yes, in some ways it does. It teaches you some basic words such as apoapsis and etc. But anyways, Ryan, you said that you have to do good in school and they pick you out of many other pilots. Not to be rude, but I already knew that. I know that there was a guy named Astrozeke form the M6 forum and he sent an application to NASA. I don't know his current situation is though.
I do really well in school and I am hard working. What do mission specialist really contribute to missions? What other positions are there as well? I want a position where I get action in. I wish I could be a pilot for a spacecraft but I don't think I could handle it. I guess I have to wait a little bit more and eventually go to the Air force. I hate it when people say,"chances are very slim," because anything is really possible. Thanks guys for all the information and I hope to be in NASA in the future.​

 

[thomasantony]

Yea. But remember not to join the Air Force if you don't want to be there and just want to be an astronaut. As for chances being slim, I wish a lot more people would think that and then I would have a bigger chance of getting in .

~
Thomas

 

[GregBurch]

1. Study math and science and do well in them.
2. Become a pilot as soon as possible and fly a lot.
3. Get to know Elon Musk.

 

[polaris149Tiberius]

Thanks, but what about my other question, will using Orbiter possibly help me at all?

I think orbiter is going to be very important in makeing learning orbital mechanics and other wonderfull stuff not only educational but fun as hell. I wouldnt be surprised if even the mission specialists are required to do emergency flights and aborts in the event of a water landing. Get to know your physics for this especially motion and aerodynamics. Orbiter is a great model for both and it only gets better every day.

My recommendation to those who want to be astronauts, live orbiter because it will get you acustom to lift off and burn times and get you used to seeing the stars show up in front of you at 12:00 Noon after reaching the end of our atmosphere. You will also get acustom to various concepts of orbital mechanics and transfers and the jargon that it takes to communicate with even NASA.

I begin 1 mission or study after I get home from work almost everyday, then if I find a burning question, quicksave, come here and research a bit, post a bit if I can, then back to the mission. After dinner and getting into bed, I choose a mission with a nice long automated burn time and drift off into la la land knowing that when I wake up I should be en route to my destination.

Orbiter, Learn it, Love it, Live it.

 

[Usonian]

You don't need to be a pilot, as noted above in the Ursus post. Concentrating on flight training may actually reduce your chances of getting into orbit - a Shuttle flight may have half-a-dozen mission specialists, or more, but it really needs only two pilots.

It might be wise to hedge your bets. Get your first degree in some closely allied field - rocket propulsion and orbital mechanics spring to mind (of course) but also astronomy, geology or biology. With those credientials you could be a mission specialist, but if if you don't land one of those very few astronaut jobs (which is likely) you could go to JPL and work on unmanned missions; or to Boeing, or the Cape to launch rockets; or any one of several universities to make sense of the data gathered by others.

Will playing Orbiter help in your pursuit? NOOOO! Turn off your computer and do your homework! Get get a good night's sleep, for once!

 

[Quick_Nick]

Everyone seems to be talking about the shuttle program. Remember, it will be over pretty soon. NASA may be looking for different kinds of people in their future projects. And I'm pretty sure there will be less people on a Constellation mission and possibly longer time between missions.
This difference of missions isn't too important but I thought it needed mentioning.

 

[GregBurch]

I think the original question came from someone who said he was 13 years old. So answers to his questions need to be looking at what will be flying 10-30 years from now. There's a very good chance only space-policy history geeks will remember what "Constellation" was at that point. ("Wasn't that what Ronald Reagan proposed should follow Apollo?" "No, stupid! That was the proposal Bill Clinton made!")

I'd say there's a better than 50% chance that in 20 years there will either be plenty of different avenues a person can have followed to be an "astronaut" in America , or none. And there's a very good chance none of them will have anything to do with NASA.

GB

 

[Kyle]

Ill tell you almost Exactly how to become a Commander of a Mission.
Get A's and B's in High School
Get the Navy to pay for you college
Go to the Navy College (Annapolias)
Join the Navy,
Get a Piloting listance
Go to Test Pilot School
Become a Test Pilot
Sign up for the Astronaut Program
And hit 50 Miles.

 

[Pilot7893]

I am thinking of becoming a regional airline pilot when I grow up. What classes should I be taking?

 

[ryan]

Ill tell you almost Exactly how to become a Commander of a Mission.
Get A's and B's in High School
Get the Navy to pay for you college
Go to the Navy College (Annapolias)
Join the Navy,
Get a Piloting listance
Go to Test Pilot School
Become a Test Pilot
Sign up for the Astronaut Program
And hit 50 Miles.

You dont sign up anymore, i think, i think NASA chooses you.

 

[Urwumpe]

You dont sign up anymore, i think, i think NASA chooses you.

Wrong. You apply for it. But you should be really one of the best in your field, even as scientific astronaut.

 

[simonpro]

The good news is that only the Undergrad education bites. Getting a Masters is pretty easy and enjoyable, and getting a Ph.D is like working in the field as a researcher already.

Doing a Ph.D is being a researcher: It's a research degree (assuming it's in science. The arts ones are taught).

And don't worry about trying to get into MIT and the like. I've never been too impressed with schools which are supposed to be the 'best' when it comes to student competitions.

At undergrad level there really isn't much difference between schools. If you're a good student then you'll do well anywhere. If you're a bad student then nowhere will make you good.
Once you get past undergrad level then school really does matter. And I would highly recommend trying MIT or somewhere of similar caliber. The research they do is damned good, and they usually employ the best people in the world.
If you want to be an astronaut this is what you need, you need to work with the best: And learn from them.
Going to some middle-of-nowhere school will still get you a Ph.D, but it closes a lot of doors for you. You won't have the same breadth of knowledge and you sure as hell won't have as good a set of connections to industry and worldwide research.

Study up for your SAT and ACT, do well, get your B.S. and be sure to work on something that makes you stand out. Working for NASA isn't too tough -- it's pretty easy to get attached to a grant or a project somewhere, and if you make good connections you can even work as an intern somewhere cool. I've got three friends who are sophomores spending their summers working out at NASA Dryden. Cool stuff!

Exactly. Whatever you do getting good grades isn't enough. You need to stand out form the crowd by doing some outstanding extra work, be that labwork related to your studies or something entirely different. A lot of astronauts have done things like archaeological expeditions, or research in tough environments like the arctic.

I would also highly recommend studying geology at some level, as well as basic medicine. Most universities run summer courses on these.

 

[Dickie]

Someone mentioned earlier about civilian spaceflight in the not-too-distant future, what are peoples thoughts on the chances of getting involved in that? Does it have as much potential to grow as in industry as its made out to have?

For the guys planning on joining the military as pilots, bear in mind that good grades aren't enough to qualify you - you also have to pass a set of aptitude tests as well. Might be an idea to start looking at those too if you're planning on applying sooner rather then later?

 

[Mission_CDR]

Well I have always made A's never one B, and I am very good at flying, esspecially when compared to others my age. The first time I tried to land the shuttle on a simulator at huntsville alabma I landed perfecctly ignoring the diamond that guides you (I didn't know what it was). Everyone else after me crashed or had a very rough landing evn after they had been instructed to follow the diamond (isn't the diamond called a flight director?)

 

[Mission_CDR]

Someone mentioned earlier about civilian spaceflight in the not-too-distant future, what are peoples thoughts on the chances of getting involved in that? Does it have as much potential to grow as in industry as its made out to have?

For the guys planning on joining the military as pilots, bear in mind that good grades aren't enough to qualify you - you also have to pass a set of aptitude tests as well. Might be an idea to start looking at those too if you're planning on applying sooner rather then later?

What are these aptitude tests like?

 

[Dickie]

According to the book I used to prepare for mine ('Master the Military Fight Aptitude Tests' published by ARCO) the tests in the USA consist of:

USN:
Maths/Verbal Test
Mechanical Comprehension Test
Spatial Apperception Test
Biographical Inventory
Aviation/Nautical Information

USAF:
Verbal Analogies
Arithmetic Reasoning
Reading Comprehension
Data Interpretation
Word Knowledge
Math Knowledge
Mechanical Comprehension
Electrical Maze
Scale Reading
Instrument Comprehension
Block Counting
Table Reading
Aviation Information
Rotating Blocks
General Science
Hidden Figures

They seem broadly similar to what I did, although mine were computer based and included several hand-eye-foot co-ordination tests. The best thing to do to prepare them is practice your mental maths, speed distance time, fuel times etc, and work through plenty of logic puzzles. There are plenty of books out there in addition to the one I mentioned, including several good ones of psychometric testing in general.
The tests most people seemed to struggle with were one in which you were shown an aircraft say, banking left and diving, and then a series of instrument panels - one of which matched what the aircraft was doing; and also another which showed you about 6 planes flying round for a few min then asked you which one was the first to change direction, the last to leave etc. We also did several multitasking tests, doing maths, matching shapes and remembering sequences of letters at the same time. As well as lots of "If a GR.4 is traveling at 'X' kts, carries 'Y' lbs of fuel and uses 'Z' lbs/hr of fuel, how far can it go?" type questions.

I saw plenty of good lads with high aptitude scores then fail the medical later, or who did not make it past AIB. Even once you're actually in the Service, the chop rate for aircrew is fairly high - when I did grading over half the pilots failed, and that's before you even get to flying training proper. There's even people who turn up and decide the military isn't for them and who subsequently quit.

It's by no means easy, however, speaking to the guys who have made it (bear in mind somebody has to) and from my limited experience so far, it is definitely worth the effort.

Hope that's of some help, I'm sure there are others round here who will have more knowledge of how things work on your side of the Atlantic?

 

[Apollo 11]

As much as I hate to bring up an old topic, I would have probably the most experience on this topic.

As for myself, I joined the ROTC program in High School through college, which I attended at the Michigan Institue of Aerospace Engineering whith a bachelor in aerospace engineering
I then joined the Air Force and flew mostly test flights, so I guess you could call me a test pilot. I have logged over 1,520 flight hours in a jet aircraft.

I then applied to be an astronaut. NASA officials said I met all the requirements, physically and mentally included and that they would get back to me soon. And so there you have it, my career in a nutshell. I'm a bit upset I won't fly the shuttle, but hey, maby Orion is a bit more "fun"! Anyhow, just some advice for all you youngsters.

Reach for the Stars,
Apollo 11

 

[Andy44]

http://www.virgingalactic.com/htmlsite/contact.php

Maybe they will need to hire pilots one day. I'm with Greg on this: you have a better chance of flying a commercial vehicle someday than flying Constellation or any other government craft. They just don't fly that many, and methinks Constellation will get slashed hard by the next administration.

 

[zippy]

I'm 16 and i want to do the same thing.

 

[Scorch]

I can tell you from experience that Astronaut selection has a bit of natural selection involved in it as well. The key thing to remember is this: Study something that interests you. If the particular field you are interested (and good at) is something that will be of use to NASA in the future, then you are on the right path. Don't go into a particular field because you think it will get you selected someday, and DO NOT join the military because you want to be an astronaut. The military exists to fight and win wars...not train you to be a space pilot. If you want to be in the Air Force or Navy anyway AND want to give it a shot sometime down the road, then go for it. I was lucky because my interests and studies just happened to line up well. Just realize that getting a pilot slot will be a challenge...as will passing undergraduate pilot training, getting selected for Test Pilot School, etc. I suggest you also visit the individual services test pilot school pages and check out the requirements to get in. They are about as demanding as getting into the Astronaut Program itself.

Air Force TPS:

see http://www.edwards.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070111-025.pdf

US Navy TPS:

see http://www.usntps.navy.mil/apply.htm

@MJR: I would be glad to answer any specific questions you have. There are many, many ways to get into the program. The trick is finding the route that best matches up with your interests.