When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut.
Every kid said this at one point or another. Exploring space, whizzing by asteroids in a spaceship, surrounded by stars and friendly flying saucers, jumping around the surface of the moon, looking down at Earth from the space station'it seems so surreal. As we grow up, we realize next to every job is here on Earth, so we gaze up at the stars rather than soaring past them.
But for astronaut Jeremy Hansen, going to outer space is closer than ever before.
Since I was a young child, I was very inspired by moon landings, he says. A small Hansen thought, by the time he was an adult, there would be moon bases and Mars bases, and he wanted to be a part of it. I remember reading a lot of space books, thinking I would really like to go to space. I don't think I quite understood how that would happen or what the environment would look like.
Hansen was inspired by flight in general, wanting to be a pilot at an early age. At 12, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets because, as his father said, they'll teach you to fly for free! He says the air cadet program brought out the best in him. He attained his glider and private pilot licences through the cadets by age 17, joining the Canadian Armed Forces shortly thereafter .
After an undergrad in space science and a master's in physics, both at the Royal Military College, Hansen continued his career with the Forces as a fighter pilot. In 2009, he was selected as one of two members of the third Canadian astronaut selection, putting him one step closer to travelling up into the unknown.
Jack of all trades
Right now, Hansen's work consists of training to go into space. We look for different training opportunities, he says, then we have ... some core training opportunities that involve flying, robotics training, space station systems training, among many other tasks.
He explains that astronauts need to be jacks of all trades if they want to go into space.
During your six-month stay on the space station, you can be asked to do absolutely everything, says Hansen, from a space log to capturing vehicles with the robotic arm to maintaining the space station, and doing the science, of course.
And after all this preparation, he'll be sent on a mission to space. All things being equal, I will likely have the opportunity to fly in space on behalf of Canada. And that's a pretty extreme opportunity.
Bright star in outer space
It's an opportunity that not many have ever had. One we're familiar with, though, is Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield, the charismatic guy that infused life back into the space program. Hadfield took to Twitter to show dozens of photos from above Earth and produced an amazing music video, floating around the space station.
Hansen was lucky enough to be involved in the mission, supporting from the base in Houston. He believes, like many of us, that Hadfield has done wonders for the space program worldwide.
What I think he brought to Canada, and even the global community, was an awareness, he says. I think he gave us a perspective of our planet that people (and we all) take for granted every day.
I think Chris Hadfield brought that back to us and made us realize just how fortunate and how little we are just living on this rock hurtling through space with a bunch of water on it and a tiny bubble of atmosphere keeping us alive. And this Earth is the only one that we have.
The importance of astronautics
After studying outer space and working in the space program, Hansen has a unique outlook on how important the space program is.
One of the important things that humanity needs to do is just continue a modest investment in space exploration. I'd like to see us build an astronaut corps where more Canadians will fly in space; it seems very reasonable to me right now, given the commercial influence we see in space right now. We see commercial companies building rockets that will take humans to space for the first time in history. There's the promise of significant price reduction. I think that will change the face of space travel; more and more people will be flying in space and gaining that perspective, and I think that's very exciting.
When discussing how to become an astronaut, Hansen points out that he realized you couldn't really map out a path to be an astronaut. He suggests picking another route that you love, getting some academic experience to become an astronaut, then taking advantage of opportunities as they come up.
And if you're interested in astronautics, he says you're very smart, because we are on the cusp of some major change in space. Space is going to play a larger and larger role and we're going to have more and more humans in space, which means we'll have more and more humans working on the programs, building the spacecraft, and building the satellites.
As a final note, Hansen suggests that people must be passionate and daring, if they want to get into space exploration.
The most important thing is that people follow their passions. Find something they're passionate about and follow it; it will open up amazing doors, he says. If you're interested in working in the space business, we need well-rounded people, not just academic experiences. We need people to challenge themselves, to get out there, and whether that's backpacking in the back country or it's some sort of sports teams or it's flying or parachuting or scuba diving , we need people to get out there.
Follow Jeremy on twitter @Astro_Jeremy.