A first in the history of the conquest of space. The European Space Agency (ESA) will give disabled people the chance to become astronauts and fly into orbit. This unique project, called “parastronaut”, will be presented this Wednesday to the 22 ESA Member States.
During this meeting, the agency must unveil its new class of astronauts: between four and six chosen from nearly 23,000 European candidates.
Until now, people with physical disabilities have been excluded from the selections to become astronauts, which are known to be among the most difficult.
An “incredibly exciting” project
“The parastronaut project requires a complete change of philosophy” on the notion of medical fitness, a concept of military origin intended to select fighter pilots, Guillaume Weerts, ESA’s chief astronaut doctor, told AFP.
Kamran Mallick, chief executive of British charity Disability Rights UK, calls the project “incredibly exciting” given that people with disabilities “are left out of so many great things that humanity achieves.”
“If we really want to explore the Universe, we have to accept that it cannot be reserved for a particular group of individuals,” he told AFP, appreciating ESA’s approach to working with astronauts to understand their needs. “I’m in a wheelchair and it’s so much better when people ask me what works for me, what I need, instead of making assumptions about what someone can or can’t do,” she testified.
He remembers dreaming as a teenager of becoming an astronaut while watching a space shuttle launch. “Of course, they quickly told me that this would not happen: ‘don’t aspire to be an astronaut’, they told me… Today I regret not having pursued my dream.”
The process ‘demonstrated that disability was not a limitation’
At the launch of its recruitment campaign in February 2021, the agency announced that it would open the doors of the space to one or more candidates with a disability in the lower limbs (due to an amputation or congenital malformation), and whose names could be revealed . on Wednesday.
People who are less than 1.30 meters tall or have asymmetrical legs are also eligible. The intellectual and psychological skills required are the same as for other astronauts.
“We dealt with a great group of candidates and we met great people”, testifies Guillaume Weerts, who participated in the different stages of the selection. The process has “shown that disability is not a limitation, we really believe in it.”
At the same time, ESA has launched a “feasibility study” on sending a “parastronaut” on board a manned flight, for a stay on the International Space Station (ISS), for example. Because, in the extremely precise universe of space travel, even the smallest modifications can become extremely complicated and expensive.
Disabled astronaut sent into space ‘potentially within the next ten years’
Existing systems are, for example, designed for people of a certain height. So how do you ensure “that a smaller person just has access to the buttons?” the ESA manager wonders.
Therefore, the agency plans to work with those selected to find the best way to identify and overcome these potential difficulties. Will the first disabled astronauts be able to fly quickly to low orbit? “Space is not an activity for people in a hurry,” answers Guillaume Weerts.
The calendar is difficult to predict because “it depends a lot on what we are going to meet,” he stresses, specifying that there will be a lot of work to be done once the candidates are selected. But potentially, a disabled astronaut could be sent into space “potentially within the next ten years.”
Source: BFM TV
