Nasa wants astronauts for its Moon, Mars missions: Check how to apply

The United States space agency Nasa is looking for prospective astronauts for its upcoming Moon mission - Artemis - and future Mars missions. "Applications to be an astronaut are open through April 2, 2024," the agency said in a post on 'X' (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.

The search for the astronauts is part of Nasa's mission - Orion spacecraft atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will carry humans for missions to the Moon and eventually to Mars.

How can one become a Nasa astronaut?

1) Among its list of conditions, Nasa clarifies that one has to be a US citizen to participate in the program.

2) The eligible candidates are required to have a master's degree in a STEM field, including engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science or mathematics, from an accredited institution.

3) The applicants must have a minimum of three years of related professional experience obtained after degree completion. For pilots, the required experience is 1,000 Pilot-in-Command hours, with at least 850 of those hours in high-performance jet aircraft. Nasa said that the medical doctors willing to be applicants for the program are eligible to have their time in residency counted as experience, which must be completed by June 2025.

4) On its masters degree requirement, Nasa noted that it can also be met by "Two years of work towards a doctoral program in a related science, technology, engineering, or maths field or completed Doctor of Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine, or related medical degree or completion (or current enrollment that will result in completion by June 2025) of a nationally recognized test pilot school program."

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5) Skills in leadership, teamwork and communications are also a prerequisite for Nasa's missions, which aim to send humans to the unexplored regions of space.

How will the candidates be selected?

Nasa's Astronaut Selection Board will review the applications. After a thorough review, the qualified candidates will be invited for an interview at Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 

"Of those interviewed, about half are invited back for second interviews. From that group, Nasa's new astronaut candidates are selected. They report for training at Johnson and spend the next two years learning basic astronaut skills like spacewalking, operating the space station, flying T-38 jet planes and controlling a robotic arm," Nasa said.