Selected teenagers to get involved in astronaut Svoboda’s space mission training
Twenty teenage "space ambassadors" will help to promote fighter pilot Ales Svoboda’s journey into space as an astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) within the next five years. The newly-launched Zero-G project aims to popularize science among the young.
Earlier this year the Czech government announced that after nearly half a century, the country is ready to send another astronaut to space. The man preparing for the mission, which is expected to take place in five years’ time, is Czech fighter pilot Aleš Svoboda, a member of the European Space Agency’s astronaut reserve.
Now it has unveiled plans to popularize the flight by giving young space enthusiasts a taste of what such a challenge entails. Twenty selected students will get the unique opportunity to undergo the tests that Aleš Svoboda had to pass to become an astronaut.
ESA will provide a specially modified Airbus 310 that enables the most faithful simulation of space flight that can be achieved on Earth. During an hour-long flight, pilots guide the aircraft along a so-called parabolic path so that the cabin becomes weightless –giving those on board the chance to experience the sensations of an astronaut in orbit. The flight should take place as early as March 2025.
Students between the ages of 13 and 18 are eligible to sign up for the project on the newly launched website vzhurudovesmiru.cz. The selection process will have six stages, and candidates will be tested in a wide variety of areas, such as psychological and physical duress, memory, speed, orientation and foreign languages, among others. Applicants must register on the website by 30 September.
Testing should start in October. By that time, Svoboda will be in Cologne, Germany, for the first of three two-month training sessions before going into space.
The flight will cost Czechia around two billion crowns, but Prime Minister Petr Fiala expects to see an eight-fold return on the investment in the subsequent development of industry, science and, above all, in the development of new technologies.
“Czechia’s Journey into Space will strengthen the Czech brand in the world, boost the country’s economy, Czech space companies, and not least motivate the young generation to reach for the sky. We need future experts and we need to further strengthen education in natural sciences and engineering.”
Currently about 50 Czech companies are involved in space research and technologies from the Czech Republic are already working not only in orbit, but also on Mars.
Czech students are also showing great promise. The LASAR team – a group of high school students from the Czech Republic –this year won the final of the international Conrad Challenge at the headquarters of the US space agency NASA in Houston with their plan to reuse unused satellites in orbit.
With the support of Czech companies, LASAR will send its own mini-spacecraft into space later this year. The aim is to test the use of a laser to clean up space debris in orbit.
