It is going to be tough to get selected into NASA mission.
American space agency NASA is looking to hire four people for a year-long simulated experience of Mars. The job advertisement has been posted on the page of Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA). Successful candidates will be confined to a 1,700 square-foot habitat called Mars Dune Alpha, with limited resources and challenges such as environmental stressors and equipment failures. The space agency plans to get individuals ready for future space missions, especially to Mars, and wants to gather data on a variety of factors, such as physical and behavioural health and performance.
"During the mission, the crew will conduct simulated spacewalks and provide data on a variety of factors, which may include physical and behavioural health and performance," the NASA website says about the mission.
"Having this analog environment allows us to put in some of the other realism effects which we might not get on the International Space Station and it also allows us to get a larger sample size," CHAPEA principal investigator Grace Douglas told Science Alert.
"This really is the core of getting us all of the data that we're going to need to go on these missions," he added.
Selection criteria:
It is going to be tough to get selected into NASA mission. The candidates must be US citizens, between the ages of 30-55, in excellent health and be non-smokers with no criminal record.
In terms of educational qualification, the candidates must have at least a master's level of STEM qualifications, a minimum of one thousand hours as an aircraft pilot, or completed military officer training.
They will be asked questions about their diets and gut health, and how they deal with isolation and claustrophobia.
The entire selection process will take up to 14 months. The online application deadline is Tuesday 2 April 2024.