Apply for Mars Simulation Because Earth Is Fucked
Have you heard the news? The land is tainted . And unless you are a reckless billionaire, chances are good that you will never go into space. Only a handful of people made it out of Earth’s atmosphere and lived to talk about it, and none of these lucky and extremely well prepared souls (about 574 of them ) ever came close to setting foot on another planet. NASA wants to change that – something like – by giving ready and capable volunteers the opportunity to live on a Mars simulator for a year.
You won’t be cooking in 1/3 Earth’s gravity or battling Martian sandstorms, but you will be living in the most Martian environment the space agency can create at its Johnson Space Center in Houston.
How to Apply to Become a NASA Mars Simulator
This mission is called the Crew Health and Performance Research counterpart , and is not entirely open to the public: candidates must have a sufficiently specialized and advanced level of knowledge in STEM, such as a Master’s degree in Engineering, Biology. , physics, computer science or mathematics from an accredited institution. “
NASA notes that its selection criteria are largely the same as its Astronaut Program, which can be viewed here if you think you have scientific conscientiousness to consider. Needless to say, the Mars simulator is not necessarily open to the public, but US citizens between the ages of 30 and 55 with the requisite science or technology background can apply.
The goal of the program is to create something as close as possible to the Martian environment on Earth, in order to better study the conditions of life on the Red Planet in case we manage to send a person there (before we completely destroy the Earth’s ability to support life … that). And if this mission isn’t as vivid as the grand dreams of some billionaires to one day transform humans into space, NASA’s efforts will continue to play an important role in our broader exploration of the solar system.
The mission itself will consist of three separate summers at Johnson Space Center. The space agency describes the living quarters in more detail, writing:
The 3D printed habitat will include private crew quarters, a kitchen and dedicated areas for medicine, recreation, fitness, work and crop farming, as well as a technical work area and two bathrooms.
The work will entail tackling “environmental stressors such as resource constraints, isolation, equipment failure and significant workloads,” NASA writes. Other activities will include simulations of spacewalks using virtual reality, “communication, crop growth, food preparation and consumption, exercise, hygiene, maintenance, personal time, scientific work and sleep.” Cataloging data to inform future missions is also a central task. Three missions will take place in 2022, 2024 and 2025.
The review requirements are quite strict, so please review NASA’s criteria before launching your application . For any potential challenger, the dream of getting into space without taking off in a rocket ship is closer than ever.