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Get your applications in — NASA is recruiting a new class of astronauts to explore infinite on the next-generation Orion deep-space exploration vehicle. Among the key requirements listed on the space agency's job post on usajobs.gov – "frequent travel may be required." So you're probably out of luck if you're seeking a work-from-home arrangement on a crewed mission to Mars.

NASA successfully tested Orion last December, blasting the long-haul crew capsule into space atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. for a quick, four-hour jaunt in orbit some 3,600 miles above Earth before splashing down in the Pacific. The next big test mission will exist an uncrewed flight to the moon in 2022. In September, NASA pushed back Orion'southward starting time crewed flight, too a trip to the moon, by nearly two years to April 2023.

In the meantime, at that place will be plenty of low-Earth orbit activity for NASA's adjacent wave of astronauts, who will be conducting missions to the International Space Station aboard commercial spacecraft the space agency has contracted from SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, per Mon's chore list.

Astronaut on Mars

"NASA is accepting applications for a new class of astronauts. Today, more new homo spacecraft are in development in the United States … than at whatsoever time in history, and future Astronaut Candidates volition accept the opportunity to explore farther in space than humans take ever been," the post reads.

"NASA is in the midst of an unprecedented transition to using commercial spacecraft for its scheduled crew and cargo transport to the ISS. For the terminal fifteen years, humans have been living continuously aboard the orbiting laboratory, expanding scientific cognition and demonstrating new technologies. Future crewmembers volition continue this work."

After conducting crewed Orion flights to the "proving ground of lunar orbit," including a potential rendezvous with a captured asteroid in 2026, NASA plans to send astronauts on "longer elapsing missions" which would culminate in a trip to Mars.

Other international organizations, such as the Mars One Foundation which proposes to establish a permanent human being colony on the Red Planet by 2027, take even more than aggressive timetables for Mars exploration, though such plans have been met with considerable skepticism.

So what's the right sort of stuff you lot'll need to get a crack at crewing Orion? In addition to beingness a U.S. denizen and passing the physical, yous'll need a bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, or mathematics, according to NASA. Candidates will need three years of professional experience related to their degrees, which can include instruction, or "at to the lowest degree 1,000 hours pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft." Chief'south and doctoral degrees can besides substitute for work feel.

NASA's physical tests an bidder'due south power to "meet the anthropometric requirements for both the specific spacecraft vehicle and the EVA mobility unit (spacesuit)" used to "fly aboard a specific spacecraft vehicle and perform EVA activities (spacewalks)." Successful candidates may wear spectacles or contacts or have surgically corrected vision but volition demand to demonstrate 20/twenty distant and nigh visual acuity in each middle, after corrections.

Here are the duties to be conducted by NASA'southward adjacent class of astronauts, per the space bureau:

"Astronauts are involved in all aspects of training for and conducting operations in space, including on the ISS, on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and in the development and testing of future spacecraft. This includes extravehicular activities (EVA), robotics operations using the remote manipulator system, the ability to operate and acquit research experiments, the ability to operate every bit a safe member of an aircraft crew (including flight planning and communications), and spacecraft maintenance activities. Astronauts too participate in mission simulations to help themselves and flight controllers in the Mission Control Heart operate in the dynamic environs of low earth orbit. Additionally, astronauts serve as the public face of NASA, providing appearances beyond the country, and sharing NASA'due south discoveries and goals.

"Long-elapsing missions aboard the ISS by and large last from three to six months. Training for long-duration missions is very arduous and takes approximately ii to three years. This training requires extensive travel, including long periods away in other countries preparation with NASA's international partners."

The application process opened Monday. Applicants will want to have their forms filled out and sent to NASA by the deadline of Feb. eighteen, 2022. You tin can brush up on how to navigate the application process via NASA'due south Applicant Guide.