The European Space Agency says it wants to recruit someone with a disability as part of its call for new astronauts.
Esa will accept applications in March to fill four to six vacancies in its astro corps, but he wants this draft process to be as inclusive as possible.
The search for a potential kite with additional functional needs will be done in parallel with the main call.
The agency asked the International Paralympic Committee to advise him on selection.
“To be absolutely clear, we do not intend to employ a space tourist who also happens to be disabled,” said Dr David Parker, director of Esa’s robotics and human space program.
“To be very explicit, this individual will have to make a meaningful space mission, so they will have to do the science; they will have to participate in the normal operations of the International Space Station (ISS).
“It’s not about tokenism,” he told BBC News. “We need to be able to justify to all the people we fund – who are all, including people who happen to be disabled – that what we do is somehow meaningful to everyone.”
People with a lower limb deficiency or growth restriction – conditions that have always been a stumbling block – are encouraged to apply.
At this stage, the selected individual will be part of a feasibility project to understand the requirements, such as safety and technical support. But the clear intention is to make ‘para-astronauts’ a reality at some point in the future, even if it takes some time.
Esa is busy with a great variety. On gender issues, for example, it has lagged far behind.
Only one of his current harvests of astronauts is female (Samantha Cristoforetti); only one of its senior directors is also a woman (Elodie Viau in telecommunications). And in the leading positions on robotic space missions – the project scientist and project manager – the vast majority are still men.
Only 16% of the applicants for the last astronaut call in Esa in 2008 were female. The agency wants to see it increase dramatically this time around. Applications are accepted from 31 March to 28 May.
To qualify, candidates must have a master’s degree (or higher) in Natural Sciences, Medicine, Engineering, Mathematics or Computer Sciences, or be qualified as an experimental test pilot.
“They must be proficient in English with a good knowledge of a second language. It does not matter what the second language is, but it must be a second language,” said Lucy van der Tas, head of talent acquisition.
The ability to speak Russian – the other language used in the space station – will be part of the training program.
In the recruitment process, at least four individuals must go directly to the Esa astronaut corps in Cologne, Germany.
A further 20 candidates will also take a reserve.
They will be contracted to make themselves available for calls, either because of retirements among the existing astronauts, or because individual Esa member countries want to run a national mission to the ISS.
This is now possible because the American aviation companies SpaceX and Boeing will sell seats in their new crew capsules on a commercial basis.
If the Member State buys this opportunity, Esa will train their national candidate in the reserve pool.
The successful candidate with a disability also goes into a reserve. Esa will then work with his partners on the ISS to find the best way to manage a para-astronaut.
“We did not evolve to go to space. When it comes to space travel, we are all disabled,” Samantha Cristoforetti said. “What brings us from the fact that we are incapable of going to space to being able to go to space is just technology. It’s a feasibility study and we’ll look at what exactly is needed, how much it’s going to cost – but it’s the purpose. “
The last astronaut selection process saw the Frenchman Thomas Pesquet; Italians Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano; Germany’s Alexander Gerst; Denmark Andreas Mogensen; and the British Tim Peake joined the corps in 2009. The German Mathias Maurer – an ‘also suitable’ – joined him in 2015.
The choice of Tim Peake raised some eyebrows at the time because the UK at the time did not help fund Esa’s human space program. However, the agency emphasizes that applications are accepted from all its member states, regardless of national funding decisions.
Commenting on the new call, Tim Peake told BBC News: “We are involved in the Artemis program, which will send people back to the lunar surface, and it is a gateway to Mars. [draft] could recruit the first Europeans to set foot on Mars. ‘