In first grade Jessica Meir made a drawing of herself standing on the
moon. Turns out she underestimated her own ambition: Today, at 38, Meir
could become the first human to touch down on an even farther
destination: Mars. A next step for man? Yes, and a giant leap for
womankind.
The mission itself is at least 15 years away—it will take that long
to build and test every last piece of equipment. But it's already the
most hotly anticipated space-exploration effort ever. Governments around
the world—in China, Europe, and Russia—have plans in the works to at
least land robots on Mars, while in the U.S., private companies like
SpaceX are partnering with NASA on a human mission and plotting their
own commercial trips. And unlike the 1960s race to the moon, this time
women are playing pivotal roles—building rockets, designing space suits,
and controlling the remote rovers that are already sending momentous
insights back from Mars.
A human landing will not, to put it mildly, be easy. The shortest
route to our planetary neighbor is 35 million miles. Just getting there
will take six to nine months; a round-trip, two to three years. "This
will be the longest, farthest, and most ambitious space-exploration
mission in history," says Dava Newman, Ph.D., NASA's deputy
administrator. Once they've landed, the astronauts will have to navigate
giant dust storms, temperatures that can plummet to minus 284 degrees
Fahrenheit in winter, and an atmosphere filled with cancer-causing
galactic radiation. If their equipment fails? NASA won't hear an SOS for
10 minutes. And there's no turning back. "It's not like the moon;
that's a three-day trip," says Jason Crusan, director of advanced
exploration systems at the agency. "When you go to Mars, you're going.
You can't abort."
And yet the pull is irresistible: The rovers have revealed a land of
swooping red dunes and craters. Evidence of water—not just ice, but
actual flowing water—has surfaced, and water is often
considered a sign of possible life. "Mars can teach us so much about the
past, present, and future of our own planet," says Meir. "That's a
phenomenal thing."
Also phenomenal? For the first time NASA's latest class of astronauts
is 50 percent female. A fearless group, Meir and her colleagues Anne
McClain, 36, Christina Hammock Koch, 37, and Nicole Aunapu Mann, 38,
have already flown combat missions in Iraq, braved the South Pole, and
dived under thick layers of ice in Antarctica. Last fall they gave Glamour exclusive access to watch them train at NASA's facilities in Houston—and talked about their epic adventure.
"I can't recall not wanting to be an astronaut."
NASA inducts a new class of prospective astronauts every four or five years, and competition is fierce. From application to acceptance, the process takes a year and a half and includes intensive psychological and medical testing. When these women were chosen for the class of 2013, NASA announced that they could be selected for an inaugural trip to Mars.
Anne McClain: There were more than 6,100 other
applicants for our class of eight, and I'd made my peace with not
getting in. I still remember getting the call that I'd been selected. I
couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk. I started crying. I grew up in
Spokane, Washington, and I can't recall ever not wanting to be
an astronaut. I learned a lot [serving 15 months] in Iraq, flying attack
helicopters at the front of the front lines. I joined the Army out of a
deep sense of duty, but wanting to be an astronaut feels more like my
destiny. With so much conflict in the world, space exploration can be a
beacon of hope. No one cares about race or religion or nationality in
space travel. We're all just part of Team Human.
Jessica Meir, Ph.D.: I had a fantastic view of the
stars from the teeny town in Maine where I grew up. Maybe that's why I
wanted to be an astronaut from such a young age. I've always been drawn
to remote places—and extreme challenges. While doing research on emperor
penguins for my Ph.D. in marine biology, I lived and worked in
Antarctica, where I also went scuba diving under several feet of ice.
Christina Hammock Koch: My bedroom wall in
Jacksonville, North Carolina, was covered in posters of the space
shuttle alongside ones of New Kids on the Block. I had always set my
sights on working with NASA, but I didn't want to get there by checking
the usual boxes, like learning to fly and scuba dive. I wanted to get
there because I was passionate about science and the next frontier. When
the opportunity to spend a year at the South Pole came up, I took it.
There I was in charge of more than 10,000 gallons of liquid helium to
keep the telescopes supercool. Our motto was "When the South Pole isn't
cold enough, call us."
Nicole Aunapu Mann: I'm probably one of the few astronauts who didn't
know that's what I wanted to do as a kid. "Astronaut" seemed like a
far-fetched dream. I'm from Penngrove, California, and it wasn't until
my first tour in Iraq flying fighter jets with the Marine Corps that I
realized one day I might actually be a good candidate. Going into space
will be the absolute coolest thing in the world.
"You never forget the first time you're weightless."
During their two years of training, astronaut candidates learn space skills: flying T-38 supersonic jets that can go 20 miles per minute to practice operating a spacecraft; mastering tasks under 40 feet of water in a massive pool called the Neutral Buoyancy Lab to get used to weightlessness; and surviving what they call the vomit comet.
Koch: The most exciting part for me has been the
T-38. As an engineer I'm used to going into my office to think through a
problem. But in a supersonic jet, you don't have that luxury!
Meir: For me one of the most rewarding things has
been spacewalk training. When you put on the suit, you weigh around 400
pounds. Two people help you into it, and a crane lowers you into the
pool. The whole six-hour session is incredibly physically challenging.
Your arms stand out at awkward angles because you're inflated; your
gloves are bulky and pressurized. Each motion, even just making a fist,
requires so much effort. You learn pretty quickly that trying to rush
really gets you nowhere. (As they always say, in the suit "slow is
fast.") At one point I saw a classmate in a space suit, and I thought,
Oh my God, he's really an astronaut. And then it hit me: After 30 years
of wanting this so badly, I'm an astronaut too.
Mann: The vomit comet totally blew my mind.
Meir: It's a large plane that's hollowed out. When
the pilot is at the top of the parabola and free-falls back down toward
the ground, you're weightless for about 25 seconds. You repeat that
cycle 30 or 40 times. A lot of people get sick, hence the name. You
never forget the first time you're weightless. I loved it.
McClain: We try to prepare [for everything]. Let's
say you get a toothache—will someone on the crew be trained as a
dentist? When you get there [after nine months], how sure on your feet
will you be? But I have no doubt NASA will find solutions. Walking out
to the launch pad, would there be that fear? Absolutely. But if you
don't face your fears, the only thing you'll ever see is what's in your
comfort zone.
Adapted from : http://www.glamour.com/inspired/2016/01/nasa-women-astronauts-first-trip-to-mars
