Serious Question: Route to be a Physician Astronaut

[MedicalDoge]

Hello all!

I am posting this for two principle reasons:

1) My love for astronomy is second only to my love for medicine, and becoming an astronaut has always been a childhood dream of mine

2) I currently have way too much time on my hands

Anyway, I know physicians are great candidates to become astronauts given the impact of zero gravity conditions on the body. I also read that having an advanced degree offsets the required aviation hours to become an astronaut. My question is: What would be the best route to take after med school if I decide to pursue this dream?

I hear there are aerospace medicine residencies, should I pursue that, or should I consider HPSP since I am pretty sure astronauts must have military experience (not sure on this)?

@HomeSkool , you are the only military doctor I know on here.

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[Lucca]

Hello all!

I am posting this for two principle reasons:

1) My love for astronomy is second only to my love for medicine, and becoming an astronaut has always been a childhood dream of mine

2) I currently have way too much time on my hands

Anyway, I know physicians are great candidates to become astronauts given the impact of zero gravity conditions on the body. I also read that having an advanced degree offsets the required aviation hours to become an astronaut. My question is: What would be the best route to take after med school if I decide to pursue this dream?

I hear there are aerospace medicine residencies, should I pursue that, or should I consider HPSP since I am pretty sure astronauts must have military experience (not sure on this)?

@HomeSkool , you are the only military doctor I know on here.

be a navy SEAL with a bronze and silver star and go to HMS

Med School grad to trade scrubs for space suit

 

[MedicalDoge]

be a navy SEAL with a bronze and silver star and go to HMS

Med School grad to trade scrubs for space suit

Oh my goodness.. sounds like quite an impressive man. Well so much for this haha

 

[DrRiker]

I imagine there will eventually be demand for more physician-astronauts with manned missions to Mars. Be trained in something potentially useful, maybe pulm or cards? and apply to NASA or SpaceX or whoever is hiring physicians for their missions. I wouldn't be surprised if they select for MD/PhD too, in which case it might be helpful to find research groups studying the effects of cosmic radiation or low gravity.

 

[Catalystik]

Hello all!

I am posting this for two principle reasons:

1) My love for astronomy is second only to my love for medicine, and becoming an astronaut has always been a childhood dream of mine

2) I currently have way too much time on my hands

Anyway, I know physicians are great candidates to become astronauts given the impact of zero gravity conditions on the body. I also read that having an advanced degree offsets the required aviation hours to become an astronaut. My question is: What would be the best route to take after med school if I decide to pursue this dream?

I hear there are aerospace medicine residencies, should I pursue that, or should I consider HPSP since I am pretty sure astronauts must have military experience (not sure on this)?

@HomeSkool , you are the only military doctor I know on here.

If the two physicians selected to join the most recently selected group of 12 astronaut candidates from >18,000 applications are any indication, then getting military experience would be helpful.

 

[mimelim]

I actually have first hand experience in this (the applying bit)...

#1 There was a call for applications back in ~2014/2015, I'm not sure since I didn't pay much attention before then, but they are not always looking for people.
#2 You apply for the astronaut candidate program like every other US Gov job here: USAJOBS - The Federal Government's official employment site If you are active military, you also have to fill out separate paperwork with your own branch.
#3 You submit a resume, transcripts, etc. just like any job/school application.
#4 They contact your references and review all of your materials and invite people for interviews. I certainly have never been on their side of the screen, but I think that there are three rounds of interviews.

As for what they are looking for and how to prepare for applying, from seeing who they ended up selecting last year and going through at least some of this process...

a) A premium is placed on flight experience. It isn't a requirement and certainly there are notable astronauts that do not have it, but there are more people with academic excellence interested in the astronaut program than there are people with flight experience and the combination is relatively rare. It is an expensive 'hobby' and they really only count flight experience in jet aircraft, so unless you are military, those flight hours are pretty rare.
b) There are very few things that are similar to being an astronaut. From the questions asked and general gestalt that I got, they are looking for excellence. Not just academic, I mean that you are an amazing person, academically sound, clear headed etc.
c) They want people who are adaptable and while they can follow instruction perfectly, feel comfortable doing what is necessary to get something done, even if it means getting well outside of the box.
d) You have to be scientifically minded. I don't mean that you study science or are good at it. I mean that you have to have a certain element of inquisitiveness and thirst for exploration of both geography and knowledge.

ps. I don't keep many photos of myself around my desk at home or in the office, but right now next to me is a photo of Kjell Lindgren and myself goofing around at a conference. Probably one of coolest moments of my life.

 

[MedicalDoge]

I imagine there will eventually be demand for more physician-astronauts with manned missions to Mars. Be trained in something potentially useful, maybe pulm or cards? and apply to NASA or SpaceX or whoever is hiring physicians for their missions. I wouldn't be surprised if they select for MD/PhD too, in which case it might be helpful to find research groups studying the effects of cosmic radiation or low gravity.

Thank you! I was also thinking that the advent of Mars ambitions and SpaceX would increase demand! Do you think Emergency Med or Neurology might be useful as well?

If the two physicians selected to join the most recently selected group of 12 astronaut candidates from >18,000 applications are any indication, then getting military experience would be helpful.

Thank you! Love the new profile pic

I actually have first hand experience in this (the applying bit)...

#1 There was a call for applications back in ~2014/2015, I'm not sure since I didn't pay much attention before then, but they are not always looking for people.
#2 You apply for the astronaut candidate program like every other US Gov job here: USAJOBS - The Federal Government's official employment site If you are active military, you also have to fill out separate paperwork with your own branch.
#3 You submit a resume, transcripts, etc. just like any job/school application.
#4 They contact your references and review all of your materials and invite people for interviews. I certainly have never been on their side of the screen, but I think that there are three rounds of interviews.

As for what they are looking for and how to prepare for applying, from seeing who they ended up selecting last year and going through at least some of this process...

a) A premium is placed on flight experience. It isn't a requirement and certainly there are notable astronauts that do not have it, but there are more people with academic excellence interested in the astronaut program than there are people with flight experience and the combination is relatively rare. It is an expensive 'hobby' and they really only count flight experience in jet aircraft, so unless you are military, those flight hours are pretty rare.
b) There are very few things that are similar to being an astronaut. From the questions asked and general gestalt that I got, they are looking for excellence. Not just academic, I mean that you are an amazing person, academically sound, clear headed etc.
c) They want people who are adaptable and while they can follow instruction perfectly, feel comfortable doing what is necessary to get something done, even if it means getting well outside of the box.
d) You have to be scientifically minded. I don't mean that you study science or are good at it. I mean that you have to have a certain element of inquisitiveness and thirst for exploration of both geography and knowledge.

ps. I don't keep many photos of myself around my desk at home or in the office, but right now next to me is a photo of Kjell Lindgren and myself goofing around at a conference. Probably one of coolest moments of my life.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. This really does help a ton. I am glad people are responding seriously, I thought I might get roasted for these ambitions. The ability to get information from a physician who actually applied to be an astronaut is truly invaluable.

Indeed, I see that both physicians in the 2017 class have military experience, and one had aviation on top of that. So do doctors in the military get a chance to actually get aviation hours that you know of? Or do you think that the doctors were in the military beforehand and that is when they got their aviation hours?

Can I PM you with questions about your application?

 

[DrRiker]

Thank you! I was also thinking that the advent of Mars ambitions and SpaceX would increase demand! Do you think Emergency Med or Neurology might be useful as well?

I'm really just a speculative premed lol. Understanding how to handle emergent situations would be helpful, but you also get an element of this training in IM. In spaceflight and extraterrestrial colonization, I imagine IM would be valued more for its longitudinal care, whereas EM focuses more on stabilizing and consulting, resulting in an admission or discharge with followup managed elsewhere. You won't find many consults in your space travel.

Neurology wouldn't be helpful either. Perhaps from an academic perspective, but I don't know that evaluating migraines or tremors would be too beneficial. I imagine your treatment options would be limited to what could be managed by an internist.

 

[NITRAS]

Ok, I'm just a hospitalist who plans on keeping his feet on the ground. . . . . but why on Earth (or off Earth) would NASA or whoever want a specialist? No one is going to be doing angiograms or broncs in space. You could make the case for general surgery (but they are fairly specialized nowadays) but a procedural internist makes more sense to me.

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

USMA>USU>EM>Operational medicine>Sports Med fellowship

NASA set to launch first Army doctor into space

 

[mimelim]

Thank you! I was also thinking that the advent of Mars ambitions and SpaceX would increase demand! Do you think Emergency Med or Neurology might be useful as well?



Thank you! Love the new profile pic



Thank you so much for your thoughtful response. This really does help a ton. I am glad people are responding seriously, I thought I might get roasted for these ambitions. The ability to get information from a physician who actually applied to be an astronaut is truly invaluable.

Indeed, I see that both physicians in the 2017 class have military experience, and one had aviation on top of that. So do doctors in the military get a chance to actually get aviation hours that you know of? Or do you think that the doctors were in the military beforehand and that is when they got their aviation hours?

Can I PM you with questions about your application?

You can PM whatever you want. I sometimes take forever to respond because of call schedules, but I get around to responding

Aviation hours typically come from being a pilot in the military.

Ok, I'm just a hospitalist who plans on keeping his feet on the ground. . . . . but why on Earth (or off Earth) would NASA or whoever want a specialist? No one is going to be doing angiograms or broncs in space. You could make the case for general surgery (but they are fairly specialized nowadays) but a procedural internist makes more sense to me.

I think that this is the biggest misunderstanding. They aren't picking you up because you are a physician. They are picking you up because you are among the best and the brightest that this country has to offer. While there are obviously significant advantages to having medical expertise and knowledge, there are hundreds of other qualities that are more important for being an astronaut.

 

[Saifa]

I'm glad other people are talking about this, it would be cool if the bottleneck into the profession opened up a bit in the immediate future, especially given the development of private enterprises.