Professions of the future: When will we fly into space?

How many times have many of you enjoyed watching films about space exploration? Or about what dangers are there, problems arise or, conversely, discoveries? Personally, we are constantly. The theme of space is one of the most beloved in cinema. And, sometimes, it is regrettable that he was born quite a bit earlier than the time when all this would have been a reality, and it remains only to revise your favorite films over and over again.



But we hasten to reassure you! Not everything is so bad, actually. And for us young people, perhaps, there will still be a chance in the near future to experience all the charms of cosmic life, which is now available only to the elite. And even more so for our children. It is only necessary to slightly open your eyes and see the incredible progress that is currently making the space industry. Indeed, for those born in the 70-90s, the space industry was in a stupor. The Cold War, no matter how bad it may be, still had a significant positive effect on the development of research and development in this area. And after that there was only a period of stagnation. And we all have already lost all hope that someday we will live on Mars.



But now everything is changing. The development of private commercial space exploration is in full swing. Flights are getting cheaper and the world is already talking seriously about cosmotourism and the use of space for private business. What does it say, tickets are sold at SpaceShip Two for years to come! Humanity is already without a doubt looking into the future of space, where there will be reconnaissance missions, exploration and landing on other planets, mining and production of resources in space. Everything that we saw in the films is gradually becoming a reality.



Of course, in Russia so far all cosmonautics is owned by the state, and only small subcontracts are sometimes given to private commerce. However, this will change in the future, as the whole world. Notice how many new professions have appeared over the past two decades in all areas of our lives? Computers, robots, new technologies, etc. Space expanses await the same prospects. After some time, space will begin to be actively explored by various companies and private organizations, and vacancies such as “We are looking for a geologist to explore deposits on Mars, a contract for 5 years” will become quite natural. Therefore, we bring to your attention a number of professions of the future, personnel for which, according to the assumptions of the leading experts in this field, need to be prepared now.

Space Lifecycle Designer

Specialist in the design of structures in open space (near-Earth stations and stations on the moon and asteroids).

Over the past half century, more than a dozen orbital stations have been replaced in space. Some of them were very small and consisted of 2-3 modules. Some are simply huge, like the station of the ISS, which now rushes through the dark sky with a bright star. Just imagine: its length is more than 100m! For 4 years now, the Chinese station has been in orbit, and soon, according to plans, Russia will separate from its own orbital home. Well, it’s not worth talking about the number of satellites in orbit, because there are thousands of them.

Already until 2020, it is planned to begin orbital commercial tourist flights. And after some time, flights to the ISS will also be carried out. But this station is scientific and, even though tourists still visit it, scientists and engineers with specific goals live there mainly. Therefore, it is not surprising that conversations have long been going on and projects of tourist space-hotels are being developed. And for this, of course, you will need a completely different infrastructure and specialists.



All of these technological facilities, like everything in our world, also have an expiration date and cannot work forever, as it is not regrettable. As practice shows, simply throwing unwanted parts into space is not a good idea. Every year, the danger of damage to satellites and stations in Earth orbit by space debris is increasing. And in the same way, the number of launched vehicles is growing every year.

So it is safe to say that in the very near future there will be such a profession as the “Space Facilities Life Cycle Designer”, which will directly solve this problem and make its own additions to the design decisions of developers regarding the subsequent utilization and reassembly of spacecraft, or already solve these problems on the basis of the technologies and components available to him. Such a profession will be most relevant for inhabited stations on the moon, other planets and even asteroids, where it is quite problematic to deliver new materials and spare parts.

Such a specialist will face serious tasks and the need to make important decisions, because in many ways the future life of not only the stations themselves, but also people will depend on them. Of course, in many ways the task is facilitated by new 3D printing technologies and reusable materials. But this specialty is in any case outstanding and will require a number of important qualities from a professional. Such a person will need an understanding of technology in a variety of related industries, systemic thinking, the ability to organize and organize his work, accuracy and thrift, serious programming skills and, of course, knowledge of languages. So, if you see in yourself such qualities, you can safely take note of this interesting profession.

Let this specialty be just formed in the sphere, and it will appear approximately by 2020, but now you can get a basic education to become such a designer in the future. Objectively, a specialist in this field should have broad engineering skills and have good erudition. Here you need to be a specialist in everything, and not just a narrow professional in a particular industry in order to be able to solve problems associated with any equipment at the stations.

Cosmotourism Manager

A specialist who develops programs for visiting near-space space, and subsequently - orbital complexes and other space structures (including lunar bases).

Going on vacation to the other side of the planet now, it is already normal for us to contact a person who will choose the best travel option, optimize all dates, dates and budgets, help with paperwork, etc., making our vacation as comfortable as possible. So why should outer space be an exception?

The development of cosmotourism leads to a strong development of infrastructure in space. Dozens of hotels, scientific and research stations, colonies, settlements, military bases, industrial complexes will appear. Before a person there will be a choice that often does not want to be made by yourself, right? Therefore, the profession "Manager of space tourism" will become relevant after 2020 with the development of commercial space travel.

Now it seems to us that this development of events is very distant, but in fact the beginnings of such a profession exist already now. Do you know that now there are several private companies that organize tours to the ISS? It’s worth, of course, that’s not cheap, and such companies have few clients. But if you are rich, you have a lot of money and you really want to go into space, then it is through such a company that you will have to plan your trip. At the same time, a personal manager will be assigned to you, who will try to solve all the problems that arise for you. So do you think this profession is still far away? After all, she is already here.



At the moment, of course, such work is not much different from ordinary management and working with a client, but even now it forces us to understand all aspects of modern space tourism. And what will happen in the future when there will be many stations and companies flying into space? Of course, all those qualities inherent in good customer service managers will be required here: organization, customer focus, communication and, of course, multilingualism. The ability to promptly and cunningly solve the arising difficulties will not be superfluous. But, of course, such work will be significantly different from ordinary travels on earth, because we will already talk about space and other planets.

If you like this profession, then it makes sense to take care of getting a basic education now, because very soon highly qualified managers and guides of cosmotourism will be snapped up. This is a fairly similar specialty to existing tourism managers, so it’s easy to guess what kind of education you should get.

Cosmodrome Engineer

Specialist servicing the near-Earth transport network and responsible for the development of corridors of traffic flows (both flights to orbit and transcontinental flights along ballistic trajectories) and synchronization of launches / launches on Earth (with an increase in the number of launches, taking into account the multiple increase in the number of objects in orbit )

Once upon a time, when planes had just appeared and the first of them flew across the Atlantic, no one could even imagine that such a profession as an air traffic controller would appear. However, for us this is now commonplace and for people of this specialization we do not hesitate to constantly trust our lives and set off on a voyage.

It is logical to assume that the same thing will happen in space. Now, it would seem, not so many rockets are taking off into orbit, and the chances of stumbling are minimal. Satellites fly in their orbits, stations in their own. But in a completely embryonic form, this profession exists now. Who, in your opinion, regulates the orbits of all near-earth orbital objects? For example, there is a special person at NASA: the Trajectory Operations Manager, who constantly monitors the location of the ISS station and, if necessary, regulates it (we all recently heard about interruptions in the work of engines that correct the station’s orbit altitude). Near-Earth satellites are the same people.



Of course, in the future, with the development of commercial flights and a significant increase in their number, this profession will become much more extensive, and such people will be required in large numbers. They will have to solve a lot of issues that are now standard for air traffic controllers, only in this case they will have to cover huge spaces above the surface of the earth and in space.

In addition to all other qualities required by space controllers, the ability to quickly navigate in an uncertain situation and make instant thoughtful decisions will be extremely important for this profession. In addition, this work will require serious stress tolerance, much greater than that of current air traffic controllers. However, there will still be a difference with the modern analogy, since by the time this profession appears (after 2020), most of the regulation of movement in space will be transferred to automation and only observation, communication and important decisions will be required from a person.

Cosmobiologist

A specialist who studies the behavior of various biological systems (from viruses to animals and humans) in space (in structures, aircraft, planetary stations), studying the physiology and genetic changes of organisms, developing sustainable space ecosystems for orbital stations, lunar bases and long flights .

This profession, one might say, exists already now, only in its infancy. All the functions of this specialty are currently performed by scientists located at the ISS station. Thanks to their work, including in the field of studying the life of biological forms under zero gravity, we know much more about space and its effect on us than even 10 years ago. But these scientists are pioneers, and their work in the future will undoubtedly be divided into many fields of activity, including cosmobiology.

Humanity, in fact, knows very little even about life on earth, what can we say about life in outer space. But for stations and colonial settlements, you will need to study everything in great detail. It is impossible to constantly deliver food into space, as is done now, so sooner or later we will come to the opening of a new industry in space: production and cultivation of food and animals. But this will be only one aspect of Cosmobiology.

In space, not only our body, but others, even microorganisms, behave completely differently. Weightlessness or reduced gravity changes many orders and attitudes of the life cycle. So for biologists there will be a lot of work. It is impossible to hope for luck in any case, which means that you need to study this area thoroughly. Many developments exist and have already been tested by time now: phyto-lighting, hydroponics and aeroponics, and much more. Cosmobiologists will only need to adapt this to space conditions.



Nevertheless, this profession will be far from easy, but it is incredibly interesting! Here you will need to go beyond the boundaries of the known to mankind, because people of such a profession will step on an unplowed field. Of course, they will need basic knowledge of biology. And by basic, in this case, we mean that such people should be first-class specialists who know everything about biology thoroughly. They will be basic in comparison with what cosmobiologists have yet to study in space, so this is a very highly specialized profession.

However, if you believe that you will need to sit in front of a microscope on a space station, it is unlikely that this will be so, because modern technology has gone much further. Most likely, everything will be largely automated in this industry, and therefore microbiologists will also need knowledge in the IT field. In addition, project management skills, organization, and systemic thinking will be necessary. Communicativeness and knowledge of languages ​​will not be superfluous, because in a limited space you do not want to, but you will have to communicate with colleagues.

Do you want to become a cosmobiologist in the future? Then you still have enough time to become just a high-class earth biologist now. Then, somewhere after 2020, you have every chance to start working in space.

Cosmologist

A specialist who is engaged in the exploration and mining of minerals on the moon and asteroids.

In this article, we talked a lot about commercial space exploration, but never mentioned what exactly this very commercial benefit for private companies consists of. And the benefits, as you can guess from the name of this profession, are very large. After all, we are talking about a large number of resources. And cosmogeology will be one of the foremost professions of the future. Even now, exploration of deposits on our home planet takes a long time and a lot of labor. And in space, in the conditions of airless space, solar radiation and low gravity, there will be much more problems. Nevertheless, the commercial benefit will exceed all possible costs.
Many films on the space theme of the 80-90s supported precisely this concept of developing airless space. Even the plot of the film “Alien” was unfolding on the commercial cargo carrier “Nostromo”, which carried 20 million tons of ore to Earth. But the consumption of mankind is growing every year, and many scientists are increasingly claiming the depletion of sources of resources directly on our planet. So the prospects for cosmogeologists are huge.

As in any other profession in space, such people will have to face many difficulties. Although we have been studying our solar system and all the planets in it for more than 50 years, and even landed on many, we still know very little about the geology of celestial bodies. So space geologists will have to largely navigate around the place, exploring and exploring new soils, mining new minerals and at the same time making a huge contribution to the study of our universe, because in the depths of the planets, as in our own, many secrets of our origin are hidden.



This profession is very narrowly specialized: you will need to know the entire periodic table, and determine the composition of the soil without looking at it with your feet only to the touch. But you have time to become a professional in your field, because this specialty is only in the project and private companies still have a long way to go in space exploration in order to finally start sending Cosmogeologists there. However, do not try to postpone education in a long box! Because the same private companies, which always think exclusively within the framework of business and money, will very quickly need to repel all investments. And the extraction of resources is one of the first ways to return the investment.
Cosmogeologists may have the hardest time. Their work will be dangerous and difficult, but at the same time extremely highly paid. And, we believe, the pleasure received will be immense. Just imagine the picture where you are standing with a drilling apparatus on a distant planet and looking into the black space above your head and a distant dim dim star called the Sun. Although, it is likely that drilling and production will be fully automated, and the task of the geologist will only be in control, study and research. So, undoubtedly, organization, thrift, systemic thinking, communication skills and the ability to make extraordinary decisions - these are the necessary qualities.

Life Support Systems Engineer

A specialist who is engaged in the maintenance of all systems that ensure the life of people in outer space.

This profession is perhaps the most important among all. Peculiar space plumbing! Indeed, all the others will depend on people of this specialization. Any station, any colony must be provided with living space with minimal amenities: air, water, food, toilet. These are the attributes of our life, without which our existence and work are not possible. Therefore, the profession "Life Support Systems Engineer" will be in high demand in any space object where people will be.



And it doesn’t matter what kind of object it will be: a scientific station or a space hotel. The difference is only in the requirements, while the requirements for tourist facilities will be much higher. Such a specialist will have to solve many problems and maintain all systems in constant working condition: the lives of all station residents will depend on this.

Of course, the profession is largely narrowly specialized, and will require such a person to thoroughly know all aspects of the equipment. And she will not be paid so high as those of the same cosmobiologists or cosmogeologists. Nevertheless, it will be no less interesting work. A person will need self-organization, careful handling of equipment, programming skills and, of course, communication skills. For maintenance, of course, you will periodically have to go out into outer space or walk along the surface of planets and asteroids.

In this article, we touched on an interesting industry, which is now systematically gaining momentum. We have listed only some of the main professions, which, in our opinion and in the opinion of many experts in these industries, are sure to appear in the near future, and therefore it is worth preparing for them now.

We are sure that many of you will be able to name more than a dozen of the necessary professions in space. And we suggest that you do just that. Let's imagine more situations, industries and jobs of the future space that may appear in the next 10-20 years? For example, spacecraft pilots will undoubtedly stand out as a separate profession, there will be space service personnel, space ecologists and scavengers, repairmen, and much more. Your ideas and suggestions?

The most important thing is that these professions are real and really in demand. Let's look at a world without science fiction movies and try to imagine the real needs of industries in outer space. And do not forget to write what human qualities are paramount for the specialties you offer!

Read more about future professions on the atlas of new professions website.