By Mark O’Neill
The Canadian Space Agency is looking for worthy candidates to join up as astronauts and blast off into space for them. Interested? Well, here’s the job description :
“Astronaut trainees will train for tours of duty on the International Space Station (ISS), the largest human spacecraft ever built.
Astronauts are involved in robotic operations using the Canadian remote manipulator system and regularly perform inside or outside maintenance tasks of the ISS. Therefore, astronauts are required to possess a detailed knowledge of the ISS systems, as well as a detailed knowledge of the operational characteristics of their missions, their requirements and objectives, and all supporting systems and equipment for each experiment on their assigned missions. During space missions, astronauts may also conduct experiment operations or act as subjects in physiological experiments.
Long-duration missions aboard the ISS generally last from three to six months. Training for long-duration missions is very arduous and takes two to three years. This follows basic training of about one year. This training requires extensive travelling, and includes assimilation of the ISS assembly sequence and its on-orbit operations. Travel to and from the ISS will be by Space Shuttle until its retirement in 2010. Following the Shuttle retirement, all trips to and from the ISS will be aboard the Russian Soyuz vehicle.”
Wow! But before you get all excited and start shaving your head to look like Bruce Willis in Armageddon, you need to be a Canadian citizen or a resident of Canada in order to be eligible for the position. No, not you Kiltak. We need you to run this blog! Get back here!