I can see how it was important to have fighter pilots and test pilots on some of the first missions, first flight by Gagarin, first Chinese flight or first Lunar Landing.

However our next missions will be trying to establish a real Lunar site and Long term missions to Mars.


Let's imagine it's a four person crew that is going to Mars, what should their trade/qualifications be ?

I think we should have astronauts that have a wide field of scientific understanding, it may also be important to have at least one woman as studies have shown they can provide stability on long-duration flight

Astronaut-1 Should be a Pilot pilots who has trained as an Aerospace engineer with an good understanding of geology and meteorology

Astronaut 2 Should be a doctor with some sort of academic degree for medical doctors and perhaps some psychiatrist training because even the best astronauts could be a little crazy on long term missions away from Earth.

Astronaut 3 Should be nuclear physicist with good knowledge of power systems and understanding of Mars geology or Biochemistry

Astronaut 4 Should be a Mechanical engineer with an astrophysics major and have training in medicial matters

Ehm, lets be pragmatic.

You need a life sciences specialist to keep the life support system and food cultivation (which will likely serve some combination of both functions) running.

A full on, dedicated medical specialist. ZERO other responsibilities other than monitoring crew health, which will include some interesting research possibilities of its own.

A nuts and bolts mechanic. Someone who's purpose in life is the physical machinery they use. Ideally, this person is also a pilot.

A mission commander with some kind of general science background capable of operating the necessary information gathering equipment.

And finally, a planetary sciences specialist, with a fairly broad background in environmental studies and ecology.

Notice a serious lack of research brainpower? Good, you've been paying attention. Let the eggheads back on Earth interpret the pigeon entrails, keep the people on the ground out of the esoteric and focused on getting the job done safely in a fairly hostile environment.

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In that case that the need for the medical specialist is so great then you will need more than one. I for one will assume that the doctor is likely to either get ill, get injured, or die.

Every critical skill will need to be duplicated multiple times among the crew. Indeed everyone will need to know a little bit of almost everything.

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Touche'. In defense, I only listed specialties, not numbers. At the same time, I seem to recall a doctor on a recent Antarctic expedition that had to do surgery on herself, so the one person per position idea is not without precedent.

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"I always look for a woman who has a tattoo. I see a woman with a tattoo, and I'm thinking, 'OK, here's a gal who's capable of making a decision she'll regret in the future.'"- Richard Jeni.

I think this is a good opportunity for Opportunity

The h*ck with the four person crew. If you can't send a couple dozen, don't send any. Or send one or two.

Just to be clear. Part of the reason I am taking this position stems from the Apollo missions. The guys who went up there, except Cernan, were not scientists in the truest sense. They were pilots who's first priority was knowing their vehicle inside and out. Once on the ground on the Moon (with respect to all of them) they were essentially ratracing in a maze trying to get the machinery up and running with only the barest nuts and bolts knowledge needed to get them where they needed to be and operational. The teams on the ground were the ones who made sense of what they found. The Moon teams were there to get their job done in the time alotted, without any kind of margin for that kind of in depth analysis.

With luck, the next generation of Moon missions will allow for a bit more time to do some on site work with larger crews and longer stays, but the crew's #1 priority should always be keeping the machines that keep them alive running, moreso than the science.

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"I always look for a woman who has a tattoo. I see a woman with a tattoo, and I'm thinking, 'OK, here's a gal who's capable of making a decision she'll regret in the future.'"- Richard Jeni.

Just my personal opinion, but I agree that each crewmember will need a primary and at least one secondary skill like they have in Special Forces "A" teams. Perhaps it's best to think of the needed skills for a successful Mars mission and then attempt to assemble a crew around those skills.

Pilot - while most of the flight will be automated, you need someone with the necessary skills to monitor the various mission operations and take corrective action as necessary. We need to allow for the weakening in the crew as a result of long periods of weightlessness, so the actual piloting will probably be minimal.

Engineer - you need someone (or more) with the skills to fix just about anything. "Junkyard Wars" types come to mind. Stuff is going to break. That's a given. It has to be designed to be repaired in flight, something NASA has been weak at in the past.

Doctor - perhaps not only an MD but also a microbiologist/pathologist to help perform the search for life portion of the mission.

Scientist - need someone with multiple scientific skills including geology, meteorology, etc.

I believe a 4 person crew would probably be the practical minimum. Since they would have years to train for the mission, they could be cross trained adequately to keep the critical skills (engineering/medical/piloting in that order) available should any one of the crew be killed or injured. Prima-donna test pilot types need not apply.

A Pilot is important for such a journey but equally as important will be an astronaut who is a scientist by trade

Yes, there was only one scientist to fly on the Apollo missions and that astronaut was Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, Schmitt and Cernan helped collect the famous orange-colored soil from their Lunar journey.

I think they have been putting more scientists in space recently. For example Valeriy Polyakov (Russia) is a Medical Doctor, Michael Foale (England) studied astrophysics, James Voss (USA) who is from the U.S Army and was also an Aerospace Engineering, Ed Lu (USA) studied as an electrical engineering and physicist, Susan Still was a Test Pilot and also has a Master of Science degree, Sergei Krikalev (Russia) is a mechanical engineer.

I agree like Larry Jacks says that astronauts should be cross-trianed in the most important skills just in case the 'Mars-doctor' is likely to either get or die on the mission.

After all these years, I'd like to believe they've got the rather deep astronaut corps well heeled enough to leave their egos in their lockers. There are some times I think they may put some demands on astronauts that seem silly, but the end result has been over 100 launches and nearly a dozen extended deployments without too many incidents (certainly none mission threatening).

If there were a prima donna in the candidate pool, pre-flight training would weed'em out jiffy quick.

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"I always look for a woman who has a tattoo. I see a woman with a tattoo, and I'm thinking, 'OK, here's a gal who's capable of making a decision she'll regret in the future.'"- Richard Jeni.

The South Pole is easy going compared to Mars. After all: a plane was able to drop supplies. And communications with other doctors was for all practical purposes instantaneous. Of the two, it would be communications that most concern me here. When seconds count, asking for advice from Earth and waiting 20 minutes for the radio waves to do a round trip will not work. More than one person must know the piloting, engineering, and medical aspects well enough to be able to correctly perform the deeds under duress and without any immediate help from mission control.

This lag in communications will be something completely new to manned spaceflight. No longer will can there be instant (okay delays of a few seconds) communications with one's peers and with experts. This means that the astronauts will need to be more independent of mission control than they are now.

This communications will also take part of the psychological part of "What type of astronaut?" and "How many?" There will be no normal conversion with non-crewmembers for at least two years. Can one one imagine only being able to talk to a small handful of people? I don't think they will have spirit rations, the old way to make such misery bearable. Of course on the plus side, "letters" from home will be rather easy to get. How people will react to it without going mad is a big unknown. I don't think there are too many good analogies from past events. Social dynamics on the old sailing ships are too different than what would be accepted today. (Well I am assuming that they won't bring along a Cat o' nine tails along nor will the captain be so utterly in control and there is likely to be females crew members.)

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One woman and a number of men is not a recipe for stability!

You need a test-pilot in case something unexpected causes an emergency in flight. The Apollo test-pilot astronauts all had either master's or doctorates in engineering, so the pilot would probably have that as their secondary ability. They'd probably also be in command (as most test-pilots are military, that seems a good position for them).

The NASA reference mission supposes a six-man crew. So the six specialist areas would probably be:

Pilot/Commander
Mechanic (upkeep and repair of the main systems)
Technician (use of scientific equipment, maintaining communications etc)
Doctor (and medical science)
Geologist
Other science (meterology, life-detection and characterisation)

Each astronaut, as well as their main role would also be back-up for someone else.

<<Every critical skill will need to be duplicated multiple times among the crew. Indeed everyone will need to know a little bit of almost everything.>>

Ditto. The mission will have its pecialists, but the crew should be cross-trained to substitute for each other in case of the loss or incapacitation of a member (or even two).

My ideal crew would be an even number--four or six--with an equal mix of men and women. Better yet, make them couples, for mutual support and reduction of sexual tension and power plays. I strongly suggest that the crew be trained on the ground to live in close quarters for as long as the actual mission would take, or at least as long as the transit time. This will not only show that they can handle it, but will give them an opportunity to learn each other's responses and sore spots at once, without any unpleasant surprises in deep space.

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One way to test them would be to have them transit the Atlantic in a smallish sailboat. I've been told by folks who've done it that its really a stressor and you shouldn't ever do it with people you are not absolutely sure of.

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Another way to test would be a submarine. Estentially the same enviroment, except no windows.

How to go about it is another matter. Perhaps the Navy might lone NASA a decommissoned 688-class sub for training astronauts?

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