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Travel

Danes in Space: An Interview with the First Danish Astronaut

In September, 2015, Danish citizen Andreas Mogensen will become the first of his countrymen to be shot into space.

Andreas Mogensen. All photos via Andreas Morgensen's Flickr.

Most kids dream of being astronauts, and for pretty much all of them that's as close as they'll get. But out of all those hundreds of thousands, there's one who will actually end up getting picked to eat dehydrated ramen while floating around in an astronomically expensive tin can.

Andreas Mogensen is set to be that guy. If all goes to plan, in September of 2015 he'll be leaving for a ten-day expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), making him the first ever Dane to travel to space.

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I called him up to discuss what it takes to become an astronaut, life on other planets, and the tax benefits of space exploration.

Andreas on a NASA SEATEST mission, 47 feet below sea level

VICE: Hey Andreas. What are you up to? 
Andreas Mogensen: I'm in Star City in Russia, about 30 miles outside Moscow, where I'm training. It's a city that was founded in the 1950s with the sole purpose of training the Soviet cosmonauts. Normally, I live in Cologne, Germany, but most of our training takes place here in Russia, or at NASA in Houston.

How do you train? 
We do a lot of different things. Right now, I'm training for next year's mission. A lot of it is just like school. We need to learn how to use the computer systems on the International Space Station and on the Soyus rocket, which is what's taking us to space and back. We need to be able to fix everything, because if something breaks down in space, we're the only ones who can do anything about it. I'm taught to fly the Soyus rocket in a simulator. We take space walks in a big underwater tank and we learn how to use the big robotic arm. I also need to learn Russian and extended first aid. We really need to learn a lot of things before being sent to space.

What kind of background do you need to be an astronaut? 
Most astronauts are either engineers, doctors, pilots, or come from the military. I have a background in engineering with a focus on space travel.

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Is travelling to space something you've dreamt of for years?
Definitely. It's what I always wanted to do. I just thought that being an astronaut was the most awesome job in the world. The thought of being shot into space on a rocket and exploring the moon, or some other planet, was so cool. It's insanely difficult to become an astronaut, though, and I knew that. That's why I focused on space travel during my engineering studies. So even if I couldn't be an astronaut, I could still work with space travel.

So how did you manage to actually become an astronaut?
In 2008, the European Space Agency announced that they were looking for new astronauts. The last time that happened was in 1992. So I applied, along with 8,500 other people. Then, slowly over several years, they decimated the number through a series of tests. I didn't think I'd passed the first test, but I kept on passing them and, in the end, I was one of the final six guys.

They chose six people out of 8,500 applicants?  
Yes.

Andreas during winter survival training

Wow. What were the tests like? 
The first test was about our ability to focus—multi-tasking and stuff like that. The test took eight or nine hours. Then they tested how strong we were psychologically. Later, we were given a full medical check, where they looked for any possible reasons we may be unable go to space.

So you're incredibly healthy.
Yeah, I guess. Finally, we had to do two interviews in front of all the bosses of ESA.

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What are you going to be doing in space? 
I'm going up in a Soyus rocket to the ISS for ten days. The primary goal of the mission is for an American and a Russian to live on the ISS for a year, in order to see how the body reacts to being weightless for a prolonged period of time. We need this knowledge if we're going to send people to Mars. That trip would take two to three years.

The problem is that the Soyus rocket can only handle being in space for six months. So I'm taking one Soyus up when they're halfway through their mission, and then I'm taking their Soyus back to Earth.

Andreas during Soyus training in Star City, Russia. Photo .

How long does the career of an astronaut last?
I'm 37 now. You age out in your mid-fifties. So obviously I'm hoping to get another mission, but right now I'm completely focused on this one.

How do you feel about being the first Dane in space? 
It's a big honor, of course. But for me personally, it's never been a goal. I really don't care if I'm the first or the 15th Dane in space.

Are there any big breakthroughs happening in space travel at the moment? 
The big goal right now is the ISS. But recently two American companies started sending supplies into space, so that's pretty exciting. NASA also just handed a contract for manned space travel to Boeing. NASA are also working on a new type of space capsule for sending people to space. To Mars, for instance, or an asteroid. But they are still talking about that.

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Do you believe we can send people to Mars? 
I think we can send people to a new place in 2030. Whether it's Mars, an asteroid, or to the moon again, I don't know. But if we choose to send people to Mars, then we could easily do it. We are so much further ahead than when the US sent people to the moon. We can do it, but it's a political decision.

Andreas during ISS EVA Ops training

Do you think there's life in space? 
There are two further questions to that question. The first is: is there life on Mars? It looks like there's been liquid water on the surface, which is the key to life. It also looks like the climate used to be warmer. That's why we're so interested in exploring it. We want to look for bacteria or microorganisms. If we find that, it would be huge, as it would be the first time we'd seen evidence of life on other planets.

Moreover, in the last 15 years we've been able to locate planets around other stars. Until 15 years ago, we only knew about eight or nine planets in our own solar system. Today, we've found 1,000 planets in orbit around other stars. What we want to do is to have powerful telescopes in orbit to look at all these planets that are very far away from Earth. Light years away. Then we can see if their atmospheres have oxygen and water, which is what a planet needs to sustain life. It could get very interesting in the next 50 years.

Does it pay well to be an astronaut? 
Yeah, it does. I'd say we're paid pretty well. We're employed full-time by the ESA, so we have the same employment terms as everybody else here.

Last question—I don’t suppose there are any tax benefits to working in space?
No, not really. But since we're working for an international organisation like the EU, we actually don't pay taxes. But that's not because we're in space.

Cool. Good luck up there.