When polling your average kindergarten class for their most ideal jobs, you would get three answers across the board: Cowboy, Pirate, and Astronaut. For the longest time, those three dreams were little more than fluff between young ears, waiting for the rigors of everyday life to remind them that not everyone can be a cowboy, and the qualifications for becoming a pirate require more than a little schooling. However, NASA’s recent announcement just opened a door that millions of up-and-coming astronauts would be happy to float through.
With our space program reinvigorated by the latest development on Mars, NASA has begun the arduous process of preparing for our next, most dramatic reach into the inky black surrounding our planet. Development is underway for more than just a manned Martian exploration, though. Plans outlining a manned orbital space station, commercial space flight, and deep-space exploration are all on the table, each with their own bevy of positions to be filled.
Starting December 14th and ending sometime in February, NASA’s open application period is a welcome invitation for any of those daring enough to explore the great unknown. While the window is small and some prerequisites are surely required to fill the roll, never in the history of NASA has there been an open call for astronauts.
From being barely used to branching out tremendously, NASA is working on multiple projects that would elevate our space program to the cultural height it was during the first moon landing. Everyone remembers the first time feet landed on the moon and those immortal words echoed into the airless atmosphere, but will we soon see the first to step foot on Mars? Maybe this new class of NASA hopefuls will contain the first woman or man to make our next leap into the future. For more information, click here.