ESA names first Parastronaut: paralympian and aspiring surgeon John McFall The European Space Agency (ESA) announced its intake of 17 astronauts for 2022 on Wednesday – including five career astronauts, 11 astronaut reserves and one selected from its November 2021 Parastronaut Feasibility Study. "Today we welcome the 17 members of the new ESA astronaut class 2022. This ESA astronaut class is bringing …
Yeah, I was thinking that too. In orbit, being shy one leg likely isn't much of a handicap, if any.
He said "what it is about having a physical disability that makes it trickier and overcome those hurdles."
To be fair, I suspect he and they won't actually learn all that much that isn't obvious simply because this is one physical disability and possibly the one that will have the least effect. I'd imagine it will be great for him being microgravity and not having to deal with the earthbound problems a prosthetic leg can have, but I suspect people with other physical disabilities will not benefit much from this experiment, eg those missing a hand or arm, blind or deaf.
On the other hand, it's one small step (no pun intended).
No, but at the Artemis launch they kept repeating "we will land the first woman and person of color on the Moon"
Over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
It got to be a bit much, even for me.
I don't care what color or internal plumbing they have. I don't even care if they have two legs. or if they're 75 years old or 25.
Can they get the job done, not endanger anyone else on the mission, not break any hardware, get all the science, and get home safe?
Edit: and if you want someone worse than Bill "Congressional junket in space" Nelson, look up "Barfin' Jake" Garn. Spent the entire mission puking his guts out, having to have a professional astronaut take time from their mission to nanny him.
Quite. If I were on that mission because of my "internal plumbing" or pigmentation I'd be rightly pissed off that I had not obtained it on merit.
Plenty of qualified candidates of all sorts.
Requirements have changed. The quick thinking, physical strength [1] (etc.) of the 1960s is not needed for current LEO missions.
Rather a calm procedural approach.
If they / we do a Mars mission this may be required again. OTOH a long-term mission like that is not a great fit for testosterone-ridden hulking fighter jocks. Maybe smaller people with lower calorific requirements with good social skills?
[1] Ed White who made the first US space walk was *very* fit. So they didn't realise just how difficult it was to do it. And obvs., being a jock, he would have made it sound easy.
"Maybe smaller people with lower calorific requirements with good social skills?"
A gymnast might be a good fit. If you have to move anything that has a bit of mass, you need to be good at balancing forces. Think of shoveling coal into loco, on Earth you can jam your shovel into the coal since you are stood firmly on the deck with some friction. Try to do the same sort of thing in space (not burn coal, obviously) and the shovel would stop and you would launch yourself the other way. You'd need to orient yourself differently and good tumbling skills would help you get into the best position.
"A gymnast might be a good fit". In pre-Mercury days NASA considered recruiting from all sorts - circus performers even. Going with test pilots might seem obvious in hindsight, and I believe that the fact that they all already had security clearance was one of the factors.
"smaller people with lower calorific requirements" was a nod to the double X chromosome.
"It got to be a bit much, even for me."
Yes. Me too.
However, sadly Tokenism is the new black. Get used to it, it'll be here until it runs it's course. Probably another eight or ten years or so.
Malcolm X would have had something pithy to say about that. ... maybe something along the lines of “What gains? All you have gotten is tokenism — three or four Negroes in a job, or at a lunch counter, or on the Moon, or as Vice President, so the rest of you will be quiet.”
It's a shame Malcolm didn't live to see a two-term, majority popular vote, black US President.
His character Commander Doyle, commander of the Inner Space Station orbiting 500 miles above the Earth in "Islands in the Sky", published in 1952, was a double leg-amputee.
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