What are the selection methods and characteristics of American astronauts?

The selection of American astronauts is mainly based on the model of manned spacecraft. Shortly after the establishment of NASA, the United States officially decided to launch the manned satellite Mercury spacecraft. An important link in the implementation of this plan is to select suitable astronauts. The lead of manned space technology in the former Soviet Union has brought great pressure to the selection of astronauts in the United States, so the selection conditions and standards are not as strict as those in the former Soviet Union, and the time is relatively hasty.

The selection began in June 1959 and ended in April. It only took three months before and after. First, members of the selection committee reviewed the files of all active test pilots and pilots in the United States, and with the cooperation of relevant military authorities, it took several weeks to select 508 people for further consideration. According to the conditions, NASA screened out 1 10 people as the official selection and investigation objects. The essence of this stage is the choice of political and general social factors. Then divide these people into two groups and go to Washington to listen to the report on the development and launch plan of Mercury spacecraft, including risks and difficult conditions, so as to evaluate the candidates' intentions and wishes. Asking these people whether they would like to participate in the project mercury is actually a part of their psychological choice. As a result, 53 people expressed their willingness to join the "Mercury" project. Then the 53 volunteers were further examined and asked in psychology and neurology. First of all, the oral test introduces the details of the ongoing "Mercury" project to the subjects, and encourages them to put forward their own opinions on the issues they care about, so as to see their psychological motivation and technical knowledge. Then the neurologist presided over the neurological and psychiatric appraisal, and the two recorded, compared and evaluated them respectively and reported them to the selection Committee. There will also be a set of written tests, including analogy test and mathematical reasoning test. Through the investigation and screening of these projects, the pilots of the league were finally selected for the selection and testing of the corpse step.

The next stage of the selection work is to send these 32 selected subjects to the hospital for medical and special factor endurance tests. These 32 people were divided into a group of 6 people, and the remaining 2 people were divided into another group, responsible for each other.

General medical examination first asks about the past medical history, including the medical history of the selected person and the medical history of family members; Inquire about the growth, development and education of the selected personnel; Ask about the flight history in detail, including what type of plane you have been on, flight time and wartime experience, the number of parachutes or accidents, the use of ejection seats, explosion decompression, aerial work training, flying experience of wearing compensation suits or closed suits, etc.

General physical examination includes ophthalmology, otolaryngology, internal medicine (heart, lung, digestion, etc. ), neurology and surgery. All the items listed in the previous chapter of this book have been checked. It is worth mentioning that color photos of conjunctiva and retinal blood vessels were taken during the ophthalmic examination to check the changes of ocular blood vessels. In internal medicine, the examination of cardiology was highlighted. In addition to ECG, projection ECG and tilt test were also done to obtain the stability of pressure reflex mechanism and: (1) the efficiency of autonomic nervous system vascular movement; In addition to the general examination and EEG, the neurology department also made reflex and coordination tests to determine whether the cycle and brain function are normal, and also measured the ulnar nerve conduction velocity from the right elbow to the wrist. Rectal sigmoidoscopy is used in surgical examination, which is performed in a generally conventional manner. Blood tests are more comprehensive. The lung function test adopts the physical load test method, which requires the subjects to gradually increase the load on the bicycle dynamometer (that is, the dynamometer similar to a bicycle riding indoors), and observe whether there is any potential abnormality when the maximum force is exerted under the supervision of electrocardiogram, and the test is carried out until the heartbeat is 180 times per minute or fatigue occurs. During the test, the indexes such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory ability, respiratory ventilation and oxygen consumption were measured every minute, and comprehensive evaluation was made according to the standard values of each person's age, height and weight. Finally, measure the body density. The method is to let the subjects inhale as much as possible, exhale a certain amount of air, and then enter the water naked to weigh themselves.

After passing the above-mentioned series of examinations, the physical, mental and social conditions of each candidate are finally determined. Then make the final choice according to the tolerance of special environmental factors in space. This inspection was conducted at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at Wright Air Force Base in the United States, and it was named "stress test" inspection. The project includes the following three aspects: first, psychiatric appraisal, psychological test and anthropometry; The second is to measure heat flow, acceleration and low pressure; Stress tolerance, isolation and limitation of pressure suit; The third is to finally evaluate whether you can be elected as a preparatory astronaut.

The stress endurance test is the final project selected by the first American astronauts (also known as the astronauts of the Mercury spacecraft), and it has the following items:

Step test: Subjects are required to step on a step with a height of 50.8 cm/kloc-0 every two seconds for 5 minutes continuously to determine their health status.

Treadmill test with maximum workload: Let the examinee run on the platform with uniform motion, and the speed will increase by 1 degree every 1 minute. The experiment was carried out until the heartbeat reached 180 times per minute to determine its health status.

Cold test: soak the examinee's feet in a basin of ice water, measure the pulse rate and blood pressure before and during the test, and evaluate the changes of their vascular system.

Test of stress ability and emotional stability: It is conducted on a specially designed "Complex Behavior Simulator", which has a dashboard with 12 information signals. In the test, when the information on the dashboard appears, the selected person should make different responses to each signal, so as to determine whether he can make a correct response and his ability to deal with stress in disorder.

Tilting table test: Let the examinee lie on a table with extremely steep slope for 25 minutes, and measure the compensatory ability of his heart when he takes abnormal posture for a long time.

Compensatory clothing test: It is conducted in a low-pressure cabin, and the cabin is pumped to an air pressure equivalent to 20,000m, and the subjects wear compensatory clothing and stay in the cabin for 1 hour to measure the heart and respiratory system functions under low pressure, which is also called low-pressure endurance test.

Rocket impact endurance test: put the candidate in a centrifuge for human use, in which the seat is tilted at various angles to determine overweight endurance.

High temperature test: The subjects stayed in a high temperature cabin with a temperature of 55℃ for two hours to measure the stress tolerance level of their hearts and bodies to the high temperature environment.

Balance and vibration test inspection: this is an inspection by an experimental device that vibrates on a rotating chair. The subjects sat in a chair rotating along two axes at the same time, and conducted experiments blindfolded and blindfolded, with or without vibration when rotating. Candidates are required to push the joystick to keep the seat balanced, so as to measure its diagonal acceleration and vibration endurance and balance ability.

Noise test: This test is conducted in a noisy room. Candidates were sent to simulate noise rooms with different frequencies to measure their sensitivity and anti-noise ability.

Isolation test: the subjects were sent to a special light-proof and sound-proof room for 3 hours, and their adaptability to abnormal and quiet environments and anti-loneliness endurance were measured.

Conduct psychological test and examination again: The purpose of the test is twofold: one is to test personality and motivation tendency, and the other is to test intelligence and special ability tendency. The method is that testers design different charts and questions, and the selected people can answer and comment to see their personal hobbies and motives. For example, look at the picture homework, or let the candidate make a self-record according to the 566 prepared tendentious questions, and make a personal hobby prediction according to the 225 prepared self-narrative questions, so as to measure his personal character and motivation tendency. Another example is to test their personal intelligence by analogy.

Through the above-mentioned special examinations and physical examinations, 7 qualified candidates were finally selected from these 32 candidates. 1On April 2, 959, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) became an official astronaut of the Mercury spacecraft. Among the winners, there are 3 in the Navy and 3 in the Air Force, 1 Marine Corps. The seven winners are American astronaut Shepard who took the Mercury spacecraft 1 and American astronaut Glenn who took the spacecraft 1.

After the launch of Mercury spacecraft in the United States, the selection of astronauts for the second manned spacecraft, Gemini spacecraft, began in April 1962. The selection criteria and conditions are basically the same as those in the first batch of selection, but the height is slightly relaxed (Mercury does not exceed 1.8 meters, Gemini does not exceed 1.83 meters), and the age requirement is below 35 years old, which is due to the consideration of long-term flight mission. Object or crew. Among the nine astronauts who were finally selected, there were two civil aviation pilots and the others were Air Force. The third selection of the United States was conducted in 1963, and * * * selected 14 astronauts. Also selected from the pilots, including two civil aviation pilots. Starting from the fourth batch of selection, considering that the Apollo spacecraft, the third manned spacecraft model in the United States, will have a scientific exploration mission, the selection targets will be expanded to scientists, medical doctors and engineers. Except that flight technology is not the main selection condition, other conditions are basically the same as the first three batches. At the academic level, you must have at least a doctorate in natural science, medicine or engineering, and be creative and engaged in scientific research. Of the 10 applicants, 6 were finally selected, including 1 soldier, 1 doctor, 1 geologist and 3 physicists. 1966, the United States selected 19 astronauts from the air force as the fifth batch. 1August, 967, the sixth batch of selection was carried out, which was the second selection of scientists and astronauts. This time, 1 1 volunteers were selected from 500 volunteers, all of whom were non-military. The seventh batch of selection is to select 7 people from the Air Force.

The United States began to select the eighth batch of astronauts from 1978, and from this time to 1 1 selection, the physical requirements were completely implemented in accordance with the medical standards I, II and III formulated by NASA. In addition to selecting some astronauts among aircrew pilots to supplement the American astronauts (including flight experts) who are constantly being eliminated, the focus is on selecting non-military scientists and expanding them to women, American minorities and international astronauts. The eighth batch of * * * selected 35 astronauts, including 20 mission experts and 0/5 space pilots. Among the 35 students, 6 are female, 3 are black, 1 oriental. The number of applicants this time exceeded 8,000, which is the largest number of applicants in previous selections. The ninth batch was selected in July of 1980. Among nearly 3,000 applicants, 19 astronauts were selected, including 2 women. The selection of 10 batch was carried out in July, 1984. Among nearly 5,000 applicants, 17 astronauts were selected, including 3 women. 1 1 The batch was selected in July 1965. * * 13 astronauts were selected, including 6 space pilots and 7 mission experts (including 2 women). After this selection, according to the official of NASA, the announcement of recruiting astronauts will not be released at a specific time in the future, but those who volunteer to become astronauts can apply at any time, and NASA will select them once a year. The number of people selected depends on the space program at that time and the resignation and retirement of active astronauts. Because the American space shuttle Challenger crashed in May 438+0986+10, the space program was postponed, and the activity of selecting astronauts was relatively stopped. The United States chose different crew members for another manned spacecraft he developed, the space shuttle. Judging from the situation of a space shuttle entering space, there are at most 8 crew members, including 1 commander, 1 pilot, 3 mission experts and 3 load experts. Load experts are non-professional astronauts, just one of the crew who entered space with the space shuttle; There is another set of policies and procedures for selecting load experts. NASA's Load Expert Service (Load Expert Service) is responsible for all the affairs of American manned spacecraft entering space by its subordinate Johnson Space Center. Whether Americans or experts from other countries go into space by space shuttle, they must be selected by this organization. The selected load experts are included in the flight plan of the space shuttle as "crew members". The experimental project of the load expert is included in the experimental plan of the space shuttle.