00:06:24 · Aditya Agarwal
[00:06:24] S1: I mean, I strongly agree with this. I mean, at least, again, coming back at least to my own experience, I could have chosen a number of startups. I chose Facebook. I actually didn't know Facebook was going to be successful, but what I do know is that I chose a startup. Right? You have to kind of like get out there and make yourself a target for luck and then hopefully keep on taking short term goal. Right? And I think that what ends up happening is that too many people psych themselves out. Like, they find all of the reasons to, like, say no to something, but it just takes one good reason, like, to say yes. Right? You know, when you're kinda going through the crazy funnel to kinda become an astronaut. Right? Like, there's obviously... You have to start off... Are all astronauts technically... Not all astronauts are pilots. Right?
00:07:09 · Shubhanshu Shukla
[00:07:09] S0: No. No. Not all astronauts are pilots. So how it happens is that there are different phases of these missions. So, like, right now, India is pursuing our human space mission, that is Mission Gaganyaan, and this is going to be a prototype mission. This is the first time that we are going to do this. That means the capsule that we are going to make is going to be made for the first time, the service module that we will make will be the first time. This is the first time we will send a machine into space with humans. We have never done this before. So in these missions, it is preferred that you take test pilots for the job because the job of a test pilot is to evolve a system along with designers. So when I sit inside, I look at what the designer has done, and then I put myself in the situation, in the actual scenario, how am I going to operate it when I am there? Let's say I am wearing a glove, it is pressurised. How do I hold a handle? How do I change it? So these are the inputs that we are able to give to evolve the design into something that becomes safe and reliable. So, therefore, the initial few missions globally, it has always been that test pilots are a part of the astronaut corps, and when it is proven, it opens up for everyone. Researchers, engineers, doctors, anybody can go to space, but it has to reach that stage, the program has to mature to that stage. So, we are in that phase right now. So, yes, to answer to that, no, everybody goes, my commander on my mission biochemist. So, she was not a pilot. Actually, none of them were. I was the only pilot in that group of four which went to space with me.
00:08:33 · Aditya Agarwal
[00:08:33] S1: I continue to be fascinated by what are the common traits of the people who end up kind of, like, you know, finally being the people who we send into space. We've kind of identified having the desire to take risk and kind of like, you know, just take it one step at a time, but try to push yourself at each step. What other common characteristics did you see in your fellow astronauts from across the world? Obviously, you know, there's a large amount of innate skill, but I'm curious what other kind of common traits did you see?
00:09:03 · Shubhanshu Shukla
[00:09:03] S0: Quickly, I would say when we started the selection, we did not know, you know, what to look for. We had never done this before. So we the doctors and the entire medical team, we started searching for potential candidates out of the test pilot. So, had total 72 test pilots in India and already we knew getting into the test pilot is also a selection. Like you apply, you appear for an exam, you fly and then you get selected and then you do the course. So, there was one level of selection already there, but when we reached there, we didn't know what to look for. So, we took help from the Russians, their team came, looked at the records that we had. We went to Russia twice for getting evaluated there. One of the criteria for you to be an astronaut that you really have to have good teeth. You know, that is what I didn't know. Good teeth. We had good teeth, yes, We didn't know. And the reason is, I'll talk about the other tangible things later, but the reason is that you get trained medically also. When you go up there, you are trained as a medical professional, because if something happens, you have to take care there. There is no help that is going to be available. But you cannot do a dental surgery in space. There is no way to do it. So, you remove all the possibility of having any issues with your teeth while you are up there, because this will be a mission call off criteria, if something happens, because the pain is, it is gritting and then it's just so, it has been historically the case. So, most of our rejections actually happened on teeth, in dental health, initially, which is something what we learned. So, this is what we didn't know. So, you didn't prepare for it. The good part is that there is no condition for your dentals which makes you permanently unpaired. So, everything can be taken care of, but it takes time. So, you need to know for it in advance. So, that was one thing. The other part of the question that you said, what are the common traits? So, it's a bucket system. You have three buckets that you have to fit in, you have to be physically It is demanding physically, so you have to have the ability to sustain whatever you are going to be exposed to. You have to be medically fit. Not all of you will have a lot of control over that.
00:11:12 · Shubhanshu Shukla, Aditya Agarwal
Some things are going to be genetically disposed and you will have what you have, but there are a lot of parameters that are checked. And actually, was really surprised that these many tests exist. You know, I have not given blood in millilitres, I have given blood in litres, you know, for the medical test. You have that kind of... [00:11:31] S1: What is the hardest physical challenge that you had to prove? Like, is there some version of the yo yo test? Do have to like... I'm assuming this cardio, this strength. What is the hardest one? [00:11:39] S0: So, we didn't have any benchmark. So we went to the Russian site and we looked at what they do, and so we we followed what they do. So I think being in the Air Force, a lot of it was possible. We had to train for it. So, I will give you a big example. So, we had to run a five ks in under twenty four minutes. We had to do about 11 pull ups and then 30 push ups. The hardest I found was, because I am not a very good swimmer, was swimming. You know, we had to do 800 meter swimings in under twenty minutes. So that was something that I found challenging. Know, we had to really train for... [00:12:14] S1: Okay, so far I can be an astronaut, I can do all that. Okay. [00:12:16] S0: Yes, great. What about the teeth? [00:12:19] S1: You know, it's funny. When you were saying that, I was like, now I'm definitely gonna get my 10 year old to brush every night. So...
00:12:19 · Aditya Agarwal, Shubhanshu Shukla
[00:12:19] S1: You know, it's funny. When you were saying that, I was like, now I'm definitely gonna get my 10 year old to brush every night. So... [00:12:29] S0: But even more important is, you know, even if you're not in a good physical shape today, you can be. These are all achievable, all achievable. It is not something that is out of your reach. Medically, it is what it is. But probably the most important of it is the psychological makeup or the psychological fitness. Again, there was extensive tests that I did, I don't know, because these days are very random, you don't know what are they checking for. But you undergo a lot of evaluation in various situations for the psychological fitness. And again, the last one was you are put into isolation for seven days. For the psych... Psychological fitness, is that something that is... [00:13:09] S1: Is that an adaptable trait?