The Space Geography Most People Don't Understand: NASA's New Deep Space Astronauts

Could You Survive On The Moon?

I grew up in Central Florida, close enough to the Space Coast that shuttle launches were part of my childhood soundtrack. There's nothing like watching humans strapped to controlled explosions arc across the sky, then hearing those magical sonic booms on reentry – the kind that made you stop and look up, every single time.

But despite living in NASA's backyard and watching dozens of launches, I never understood where anything actually went once it disappeared beyond the clouds. The shuttle went to space, but where in space? How far?

Turns out that ignorance puts me in good company with most of the planet. And understanding those distances – really grasping the mind-bending vastness – is exactly what makes NASA's latest announcement so extraordinary.

For the past two decades, human spaceflight has focused on mastering life and science in low Earth orbit – and that mastery has been extraordinary.

But last month, everything changed with a series of phone calls that would make any other job offer feel utterly mundane. Picture Air Force Maj. Adam Fuhrmann, 35, stuck in rush hour traffic when his phone rang with news that he had just become one of the most elite humans on the planet. He pulled into the first parking lot he could find "just to make sure I was hearing right." Meanwhile, Air Force Maj. Cameron Jones, 35, got his life-changing call while settling into an empty house after a cross-country move. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Erin Overcash, 34, was just relaxing at home when her world tilted completely off its axis. Her first words? "No way. I mean, I mean, yes, of course. But like no way."

These weren't just job offers. These were invitations to become humanity's first deep space travelers in over 50 years.

The Great Space Distance Reality Check

The International Space Station orbits at 250 miles above our heads – close enough that you could drive there in about four hours and see it zip across the sky on clear nights. That proximity has allowed for incredible scientific breakthroughs, international cooperation, and kept our spacefaring dreams alive.

But here's where the new chapter gets interesting: NASA just selected 10 people who are training to go nearly 1,000 times farther away.

Picture this: If the ISS is like walking to the corner store, the moon is like walking to the next major city. Mars? That's like being asked to walk to a different continent – sometimes a really different continent, depending on where Earth and Mars are in their cosmic dance around the sun.

The numbers: ISS at 250 miles, moon at 239,000 miles, Mars ranging from 35 million to 249 million miles away.

The Long Intermission

Every human spaceflight mission you've probably heard about in your lifetime has been within that comfortable 1,200-mile zone we call low Earth orbit. The space shuttle program achieved incredible things there. The ISS has been humanity's greatest laboratory and symbol of international cooperation — groundbreaking science, billion-dollar telescope repairs, proof that humans can live and work in space long-term.

But we haven't ventured beyond that zone since 1972. The last Apollo mission ended before half the current population was born. For over 50 years, we've perfected our skills in Earth's cosmic neighborhood while deep space waited.

Enter the New Pioneers

Which brings us back to those phone calls that changed everything for 10 very lucky, very brave people – humanity's first deep space travelers since Richard Nixon was president.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder School of Space Exploration

Here's where NASA gets unexpectedly poetic. NASA's Lakiesha Hawkins compared their lunar mission strategy to the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House" series. No, really. She wasn't being whimsical; she was being brilliant.

"They were explorers themselves, right? And they were trying to figure out how to live off of the land," Hawkins explained. "And very similarly, we are working with a team of pioneers."

Except instead of churning butter and building log cabins, these modern pioneers will be extracting water from lunar ice and constructing habitats from regolith – which is NASA-speak for "space dirt," but sounds more impressive when you're explaining why it costs billions of dollars.

The moon isn't just far away; it's hostilely far away. No atmosphere means no protection from radiation or temperature swings from 250°F in sunlight to -400°F in shadow. No quick rescue missions if something goes wrong. No supply runs when you run low on essentials.

When Your Career Prep Actually Makes Sense

Perhaps my favorite detail: Anna Menon, 39, who already made history during that private SpaceX mission with the world's first commercial spacewalk, won't be lonely at Johnson Space Center. Her husband, a former SpaceX flight surgeon, was selected in NASA's previous astronaut class.

Can you imagine that dinner conversation between Anna and her husband? "How was work today, honey?" "Oh, you know, just trained for potential death in the vacuum of space while preparing to travel farther from Earth than any human in 50 years. You?" "Same, actually."

The SpaceX connections run deep. Yuri Kubo, 40, spent 12 years there, including as launch director for Falcon 9 missions – now he's training to be on the rocket. Dr. Imelda Muller, 34, a former Navy undersea medical officer, already provided medical support at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. When you're trapped in a small space with the same people for months, you want someone who understands both medicine and isolation.

The Numbers Game

Here's what NASA doesn't want you to dwell on: They had over 8,000 applicants for these 10 spots. That's a 0.125% acceptance rate, making Harvard look like a community college by comparison.

Lauren Edgar, the 40-year-old geologist who worked on the Curiosity Mars rover, is particularly intriguing. She has spent years analyzing Martian weather patterns from tens of millions of miles away. Now she might become the first human meteorologist to experience them firsthand. There's something beautifully poetic about that progression – from studying alien weather to potentially living through it.

For the first time in NASA history, women outnumber men in the incoming class – six to four. Acting Administrator Sean Duffy suggested one of them might even become the first person to step on Mars, though those missions are still in the distant future.

The training ahead is no joke: two full years before they're even eligible for spaceflight. Two years of learning how to survive in environments that make Antarctica look like a spa retreat, at distances that make our current space stations seem like they're practically next door.

And it all started with a phone call during rush hour traffic, offering them a chance to go farther from home than any human has traveled in over half a century.

Talk about a commute.