If I am nearsighted, do I still have a chance to become an astronaut?

Becoming a cool astronaut is a dream that almost everyone has held since childhood. However, with myopia now common, I believe many people have deeply felt the gap between dreams and reality: pilot recruitment already has extremely high naked eye vision requirements, so training astronauts, whose requirements are much stricter than those of pilots, must be even more difficult, right?

At present, this is indeed the case. However, after reading this article, I believe it will rekindle your hope of "flying into the sky".

Why are astronauts concerned about vision?

Such high requirements?

1

One of the main duties of an astronaut is to fly a manned spacecraft. But this job is not as simple as getting an ordinary driver's license, it has extremely high requirements for astronauts.

On the one hand, the space environment is different from the environment of our daily life on Earth. There are phenomena such as microgravity, vacuum, and strong radiation. Astronauts need to systematically learn aerospace knowledge such as orbital dynamics, space environment, and aerospace medicine to enhance their understanding of space. At the same time, the design of the spacecraft is completely different from that of ordinary vehicles. There are even many extremely abnormal operations. For example, you need to speed up to catch up with a car on the ground, and you may need to slow down to rendezvous and dock in space (depending on the orbital altitude relationship); in space, the operation of the spacecraft does not have the concept of turning, braking, starting on a slope, parking, and reversing. Therefore, the astronauts must have excellent physical fitness and their eyes must be able to control the spacecraft's running speed of 7,800 meters per second. This is not a simple matter.

Wilderness survival training is a must for our country’s astronaut training (Source: Our Space)

On the other hand, manned space flight is a very dangerous thing. Not only do you have to ride a "rumbling" rocket all the way into space, but you also have to "thunder and lightning" hit the atmosphere and return to the earth. There are huge risks in many links. For example, there is a certain possibility of landing in the desert, deep mountains, and oceans when returning, requiring astronauts to have strong wilderness survival skills and wait for the search and rescue team to come to rescue. If at this moment, the astronauts say "Hey? Where are my glasses? Where is the meeting point?", does it feel scary?

Life in space is not easy. In a weightless environment, body fluids will be redistributed, especially the head will visibly swell. People often feel that astronauts gain weight after entering space, and this is the reason. Correspondingly, the body fluids near the eyes will also increase, and changes in intraocular pressure will definitely affect vision.

Is it possible to correct vision?

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Theoretically, human eyes, or even the entire human body, no matter how good they are, are far from being directly used in the aerospace industry. They simply cannot directly face the vacuum, low temperature, microgravity, and strong radiation environment of space. Therefore, in space, we need manned spacecraft to carry the human body. Once they need to leave the spacecraft, astronauts also need to enter a small manned spacecraft-extraveling suits, which are functional extensions of the fragile human body. I believe everyone has seen extravehicular suits. The most eye-catching part of them is the big black helmet, which mainly serves the eyes of astronauts.

However, even inside the spacecraft, in a simulated Earth atmosphere, astronauts need to wear special glasses when conducting some space science experiments.

NASA's famous astronaut Peggy Whitson often wore glasses when she was on the International Space Station. The astronauts around her who were performing extravehicular operations were also "wearing glasses" in essence.

(Image source: NASA)

It costs an astonishing amount to train astronauts. Astronauts themselves have to make unimaginable efforts and accumulate experience for several years before they can get the chance to go into space. However, as human beings, we cannot avoid the aging process. Our eyes will always irreversibly become presbyopic or develop eye diseases such as astigmatism. If an astronaut's precious career is stopped simply because of eye problems, it would be a huge waste of national resources and personal feelings. Therefore, it is not surprising that some older astronauts wear glasses to work.

It can be seen that for an astronaut who can achieve full working status, his eyes are originally corrected by helmets and glasses in specific working scenarios; when his eyes age naturally or have problems, he can also use glasses to correct them to maintain working status. "No correction allowed" is not an ironclad and inflexible requirement.

The development of spaceflight has reduced the demand for astronauts.

Physical Requirements

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Humanity has entered the space age for nearly 70 years, and many space technologies have evolved. Astronaut life support technology is a top priority in research and development, and has developed to a very mature level. In recent years, there have been almost no accidents that threaten the health and even personal safety of astronauts.

In this context, the age of astronauts is gradually increasing, and the physical condition requirements for service are decreasing. As a result, the standards for recruiting new astronauts are also gradually decreasing. Although myopia is still a strict requirement, its importance may gradually decrease in the future.

After being fully verified, manned space technology has gradually focused on its ultimate goal of research and development: using space as a unique natural platform to conduct scientific research.

Since research can only be conducted through actual operations by astronauts in space, the astronauts recruited in the early stage are often not technicians and scientists on the front line of scientific research, which will have certain limitations when conducting space experiments.

In the future, as the number of people on orbit increases, the demand for medical experts will also increase. When manned spaceflight reaches a mature stage, it will certainly start recruiting payload specialists who will specialize in scientific research, medical care, etc. The physical requirements for such astronauts will certainly be lower than those for astronauts who are responsible for professionally driving spacecraft.

Since the third batch of astronauts, my country has begun recruiting payload experts to meet the scientific research needs of the Chinese space station as a typical platform. As my country's manned spaceflight will step on the moon in the future, planetologists, geologists, and astronomers may all step on manned spacecraft.

These experts often have a deep accumulation of knowledge, and their knowledge reserves are the most important. Accordingly, the demand for their eyes in space missions will become less and less. Perhaps in the near future, corrected vision will become a new threshold for astronauts.

Therefore, friends who wear glasses can continue to expand their scientific research capabilities and strive to enter space as a "payload expert" one day.