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Space program

I'm pretty sure that according to the current administration, if you want anything to do with space flight you need to call Russia or China. I bet they would happily accept your application to their military for the purposes of entering the space program.
 
bert said:
A career in military aviation offers a good route to the commercial space industry. Engineering degrees, ability to code, be a CATIA driver, various aviation-related skills (test, etc) all will help.
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Ugh. CATIA.

Has the user interface gotten more intuitive for non native French speakers yet?

Sent from a van down by the river via Tapatalk
 
MasterBates said:
Ugh. CATIA.

Has the user interface gotten more intuitive for non native French speakers yet?

Sent from a van down by the river via Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Yes, but the interface issues between the versions can still get you - though the cautionary tale of Airbus should be cutting down on that by now.
 
You'd still do fine and know more than me. Like with MATLAB I spend most of my time shaking my head about how excited I was just to get a spreadsheet to use my sophomore year when I was an engineering undergrad.

<------ Old.
 
Meh. I'm in the middle of trying to make the CFD model for fracking work.

Would get it right faster, if I didn't keep on getting dragged out of my office to drive a semi truck.

I wish I was kidding.
 
Back in the "day" (1997 or so) was an absolute guru with SDRC I-DEAS and PTC's Pro/ENGINEER.

So of course, my current company uses neither. (I-DEAS merged into UniGraphics)
 
I applied for the astronaut program in the late 1960s.
I never got a rejection letter. So perhaps I am still in the running?

Several years later I received a job offer from JPL to 'fly' one of their space voyagers.
Fortunately I turned it down for a job with a major airline..... one that had young and beautiful stewardesses. :)

However, your priorities may differ.
 
...And those same stewardesses are there, 40 years later.

Airline stews are the opposite of "Dazed and Confused." Instead of "I get older, and they stay the same age," it's "I get older, and holy shit, time must move faster at FL300!"
 
FWIW considering our current low earth orbit capabilities, which are not existent I see a trend during this down time to focus more on the science sorta background people than Aviators. That is not to say they won't focus back on aviators once the Orion Program is up and running.

I worked as a Security Police Officer at the "Cape" for a year before my current job. I know two Astronauts pretty well and keep in regular contact with them and have interacted with several. The guys operating the orbiters from the front were most always USN/USMC/USAF Aviators or NFOs then a mix of mission specialist from different places. Each of the Astronauts qualified with the T-38 talon and solo'd each one regularly regardless of who they were. There are mixed reasons for justifying this but for whatever reason I can't tell you which of the 9 stories I heard was the official reason from Nasa.
 
lawilm said:
FWIW considering our current low earth orbit capabilities, which are not existent I see a trend during this down time to focus more on the science sorta background people than Aviators. That is not to say they won't focus back on aviators once the Orion Program is up and running.

I worked as a Security Police Officer at the "Cape" for a year before my current job. I know two Astronauts pretty well and keep in regular contact with them and have interacted with several. The guys operating the orbiters from the front were most always USN/USMC/USAF Aviators or NFOs then a mix of mission specialist from different places. Each of the Astronauts qualified with the T-38 talon and solo'd each one regularly regardless of who they were. There are mixed reasons for justifying this but for whatever reason I can't tell you which of the 9 stories I heard was the official reason from Nasa.
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From what I've gathered talking to NASA employees and consultants, aviation experience is a good way of ensuring that people who go to space can handle the complexity of the job. Pilots well versed in high-speed/complex aircraft develop decision making skills in a complex and constantly changing environment while interfacing with a machine and dealing with time and physiological constraints, all while being able to remember and apply relevant information from volumes of knowledge. A person who can do all that will better understand their responsibilities of space flight, and more level-headed in an emergency, than a non-aviator.

This is purely my own speculation: I think they will always want at least one career military aviator per vessel, because the aforementioned skills will likely be more developed in him than they will in the other astronauts.

The professor of mine (consultant) went on to say that becoming an astronaut is not as simple as getting your degree and the few years of relevant experience. That's for the guys who get their STEM degrees, fly in the military, and become test pilots towards the end (flying is not a STEM job). They're really looking for people with a solid decade long work history with recommendations at all levels, various awards, and a plethora of projects to their names.

Look at any astronaut bio, these guys are mostly high-speed types who blast through education and have experience in tons of different fields before getting picked up.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio.html
 
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