Gallery: Your Odds of Becoming an Astronaut Are Going Up
01mars-one-2
When asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” many kids say, “Astronaut!” More than a few adults would say the same. And why not? We are captivated by the idea of exploring new worlds, having adventures in space, or just floating weightless in zero gravity. After all, zero-g makes mundane things [like wringing a wet towel out](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TssbmY-GM) into mind-blowing experiences. The end of the Space Shuttle program, which was the most likely route to space, seemed to put this dream even further out of reach for most of us. But many new ways to potentially get to orbit are appearing on the horizon, and your chances of strapping into a capsule atop a rocket and feeling Earth’s grip loosen may be better than ever. More and more private companies are getting into the space business, and some of them are looking for people to launch into space. One of the most ambitious new ventures, [Mars One](http://applicants.mars-one.com/), hopes to put humans on the Red Planet by 2023. And today, the company is officially starting a worldwide search for 24 individuals to join their mission and become newly-minted astronauts. Here are the many new ways that you can try to join the astronaut club, and a very rough, back-of-the-envelope estimate\* of your odds with each of them. __Above:__ Mars One -------- The starry-eyed private non-profit Mars One has dreams of colonizing the Red Planet, starting with a crew of four settlers that would take a one-way trip in 2023. They intend to pay for the several-billion-dollar undertaking with a reality TV show following its crew through interplanetary space and to Mars. The Dutch company began accepting [1-minute video applications](http://applicants.mars-one.com/) on Apr. 22. They will charge a small fee ($38 for U.S. residents) to discourage trolls and maybe start raising some money. Mars One has [already released its requirements](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/mars-astronaut-requirements/), which don’t go much beyond asking that people be at least 18 years old and “grounded” with a “deep sense of purpose.” The company will choose 24 individuals from their pool by July 2015, which will to be broken up into groups of four. If everything pans out, Mars One will train the groups for seven years. __Odds of becoming an astronaut this way:__ 1 in 42,000 (.0024 percent)\* If Mars One’s numbers can be believed, your chance is 1 in 41,000 (or .002 percent). The company claims it has already received 10,000 emails from people interested in going on their one-way trip and [expects nearly 1 million video applicants](http://www.space.com/20680-mars-one-colony-astronaut-selection.html) now that they’ve formally open the process. They will be selecting 24 from those, putting your odds at around 1 in 42,000 (.0024 percent). *Image: Mars One*
02nasa
NASA ---- The old fashioned way to becoming an astronaut is to go through NASA. [Applicants can come from either military or civilian backgrounds](http://astronauts.nasa.gov/content/faq.htm), though this job is only open to U.S. citizens. You will need to have a bachelor’s degree in engineering, biology, physical science, or math and at least three years of job experience or 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in a jet aircraft (whichever comes first). There are currently 52 active astronauts at NASA and another 41 employed at the agency who are no longer eligible for flights. This is down from an all-time-high of 149 in 2000. NASA has scaled down their astronaut corps since the retirement of the space shuttle fleet. Each new class of astronauts gets a funny nickname, such as “The Maggots,” “The Flying Escargot,” “The Penguins,” and, most recently, “The Chumps.” NASA opens up its astronaut selection ever few years and gets plenty of qualified applicants. The agency [will be announcing the results of its latest search](http://astronauts.nasa.gov/content/timeline.htm), which closed in January 2012, during the summer. They usually have [another round of astronaut hires every few years](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1cjp6g/i_am_lori_garver_nasas_deputy_administrator_ask/c9h4x6w). __Chances of becoming an astronaut this way:__ 1-3 in 600 ( NASA is still your best bet for becoming an astronaut. Each new round, NASA gets 2,000-6,000 applicants, and usually no more than 10 become actual astronauts. This means your odds are not too bad at 1-3 in 600 ( *Image: NASA*
03go-through-another-agency
Go Through Another Agency ------------------------- NASA isn’t the only astronaut-training game in the world. There are many other space-faring nations, many of which have astronaut application processes. The [European Space Agency](http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/European_Astronaut_Selection) and the [Japan Space Agency](http://www.jaxa.jp/topics/2008/03_e.html) both have information on their websites, though you will need to be a citizen of the EU or Japan. The last round of astronauts for each were from 2008. Through his twitter feed and social media presence, [Commander Chris Hadfield](https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield) is bringing more attention to the Canadian Space Agency, which exists and [also trains astronauts](http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronauts/selection.asp). China and Russia are also options, though the selection process is a bit murkier. __Chances of becoming an astronaut this way:__ Not so great. ESA gets thousands of applicants, just like NASA, and only selects a few. If you want to move to Russia, your odds might be better: The last time their space agency had a call for astronauts, [only 151 candidates applied](http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/03/16/roscosmos-extends-call-for-cosmonauts-as-few-apply/). Since Roscosmos trains between one and seven new cosmonauts for each new class, the odds are between 4 percent and 0.6 percent. *Image: NASA*
04pay-the-russians
Pay the Russians ---------------- As yet, the only people to go to space who didn’t go through years of training with a government agency are the handful of tourists to launch to the International Space Station in a Soyuz spacecraft. Multimillionaire space tourist Dennis Tito pioneered this method, paying a reported $20 million back in 2001 for the pleasure of spending eight days on the ISS. Since then, six more wealthy individuals have spent between $20 million and $40 million to get to space. Singer [Sarah Brightman is reportedly in talks](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19901386) to go to the ISS next year for $50 million. __Odds of becoming an astronaut this way:__ 1 in 72,000 (.0014 percent)\* According to Merrill Lynch, there are about [95,000 people worth $30 million or more](http://www.ml.com/media/114235.pdf)\[pdf\] in the world (as of 2009), and technically, any one of them could decide to liquidate all or most of their assets to get to space (though they still have to [survive 8 months of training at Star City in Russia](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-09/ff_starcity)). So your odds of getting to space this way are roughly the same as your odds of having $30 million. With [6.8 billion people in the world](http://www.prb.org/pdf09/09wpds_eng.pdf)\[pdf\] (in 2009), that puts your chances of even being considered at around 1 in 72,000 (.0014 percent). *Dennis Tito on left. Image: NASA*
05inspiration-mars
Inspiration Mars ---------------- One of the newest entrants to the private space market, the non-profit [Inspiration Mars](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/02/inspiration-mars-foundation/) wants to send two people on a round-trip flyby of Mars in 2018. Dennis Tito is backing the company, and he hopes it spurs other daring spaceflight plans. The venture has already received “[a ton of applications](http://www.space.com/20671-private-mars-mission-applicants.html)” but has not yet formally announced its selection process. At this point, little is known about the types of astronauts that Inspiration Mars is seeking other than that they prefer a married older couple. __Odds of becoming an astronaut this way:__ 1 in 25 million (.000004 percent)\* Lets say the application is 10 pages long. If the applications they have already received weighed an actual ton, that would mean about 50,000 people are already competing with you. They’re going to pick two people, preferably a couple, putting your current odds at about 1 in 25,000 (.004 percent). But how many applications will they get when they start officially asking for them? We’ll use MarsOne’s unreliable numbers to figure this out: They received interest from 10,000 people before their call for applicants, and now that they are accepting applications, they expect a million total, which is a 100-fold increase. If the same thing happens to Inspiration Mars, you will have 5 million rivals for two spots, reducing your chances to 1 in 25 million (.000004 percent). *Image: Inspiration Mars*
06privateastronaut.jpg
Private Tourism --------------- If your standards are slightly relaxed, and you’re only looking to get to the edge of space, several tourist outfits have got you covered. [Virgin Galactic expects to start shuttling adventurers](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/03/virgin-galactic-2013) in its SpaceShipTwo by the end of this year. You might not be able to afford the millions it takes to get to the ISS so perhaps you can settle for a measly $200,000 for a ticket on a sub-orbital flight. Pilots who work for these companies, though, can get certified as commercial astronauts. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has [given two commercial astronaut certifications](http://www.faa.gov/data_research/commercial_space_data/current_licenses/), to SpaceShipOne pilots Michael Melvill and Brian Binnie. __Odds of becoming an astronaut this way:__ 0\* All you need here is $200,000, but you’re not going to space, and you’re not a real astronaut. So your odds are zero. *Image: [Wikimedia](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spaceship_One_and_White_Knight_with_Crew.jpg)*
07astronauts4hire
### Astronauts 4 Hire One private outfit, [Astronauts 4 Hire](http://www.astronauts4hire.org/), is offering all the training to become an astronaut in the hopes that a government agency will hire them to go to space. The non-profit corporation will teach you how to do scientific research in orbit and perform an emergency evacuation from a distressed spaceship. The first class of the company’s astronauts was inaugurated in 2011, but so far none of them appear to have flown in space. They did however [test and produce a beer](http://www.space.com/9208-space-beer-headed-gravity-bar.html) designed to be drunk in space. __Odds of becoming an__ __astronaut this way:__ Unknown\* The odds that this company will take your money for their training program look good, though it’s unclear exactly how much astronauting you would ever do. *Video: [Astronauts4Hire/Youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0H9qb9GHxM)*
