Posted by
Magnus
247 days ago
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk)
Category: Science Discovery Environment |
The European Space Agency (ESA) has revealed that it has been inundated with applications from women hoping to be Britain's first official astronaut after announcing its first astronaut selection programme for 16 years.
The selection process is due to be launched in the UK this week and applications will be formally accepted from May 19. Officials at the ESA claim, however, they have already seen record numbers of women registering to apply.
Previous astronaut recruitment drives have seen one in every 16 applications coming from women, but on this occasion around 60 per cent of the interest has come from hopeful female candidates.
A spokesman for ESA said: "It is perhaps a reflection that more women are now engineers, scientists and test pilots. We won't know for sure until the application process formally starts, but there certainly are more women than we have seen previously."
Hopeful astronauts must meet a series of strict criteria before they will even be considered for selection.
Ideal applicants are aged between 27 and 37, are physically and medically fit, have a science degree and hold a pilots licence. Speaking Russian is also a bonus.
The four successful candidates will then undergo five years of training before they embark on missions to the International Space Station and perhaps even to the Moon and Mars. There have been four previous British born astronauts, but the first, Helen Sharman, was funded by a private consortium when she visited the Russian Mir Space Station in 1991.
Piers Sellers, Michael Foale and Nicholas Patrick all had to become US citizens to be Nasa astronauts. There are currently eight ESA astronauts, all of whom are men from France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, but many are now retiring and need to be replaced.
Dr Tracey Dickens, 29, an astrophysicist at Leicester University, is one of the British women who is applying to replace them.
She said: "Since I was 12 years old, I have wanted to be the next British born astronaut. I could never understand why there have never been any more British females and I have always felt that if all those men can do it, then why can't I."
"If there was a British astronaut, particularly if they were female, then it would open up a whole new world to so many children and adults.
"Britain already has a space program, but hardly anyone knows about it because it has mainly been satellites, but this could change all that."
Anaesthetist Dr Kevin Fong, 36, who is also an expert in space medicine, is another of Britain's greatest hopes for an astronaut.
He added: "I have already had a fantastic time due to my involvement in the space community, but becoming an astronaut would be a pretty huge cherry on the cake.
"Britain has got to see the bigger picture and realise that human space flight is not just about the science, but also the generations of scientists and engineers who will be inspired by British astronaut."
Test pilots at the Empire Test Pilots School in Farnborough have also said they will be applying. The ESA has said it will consider applications from all 17 EU states, although Britain has historically refused to fund human space flight, preferring to concentrate on robotic space missions and satellites.
The British Interplanetary Society has been running a campaign for British human space flight programme and the government has asked the British National Space Centre to reviewing its policy on human space flight.
A spokesman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said: "The BNSC will undertake a study programme of options, taking into account the scientific, technological and economic costs and benefits, and the UK's existing strengths in robotic exploration."
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