Oxford physicist and professional ballerina battles to become astronaut in new BBC show


Merritt Moore is not the only small child to dream of becoming an astronaut, ploughing through story books and learning the constellations from her back garden.

But she may be the only one on the cusp of realising that dream via a career as a professional ballerina and Oxford physicist.

Moore, now 29, is bidding to become the new Tim Peake after joining a crew of hopefuls in a gruelling astronaut training programme for the BBC.

The Harvard University graduate has danced with the English National Ballet, the Zurich Ballet Company, and the Boston Ballet Company.

She is one of 12 selected for the BBC’s new elimination series, Astronauts: Have You Got What It Takes? Others include a surgeon, a fighter pilot, a dentist who has summited Everest and an aerospace engineer.

The winner will gain the backing of International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield when space agencies launch their next drive for new astronauts.

Commander Hadfield, who puts the recruits through their physical and psychological paces during six episodes, said modern astronauts needed to be able to learn new skills quickly and get along with their fellow crewmates.

“In the early days we could afford to hire astronauts who are real hard asses, uncompromising, miserable people to deal with because we needed a spaceship flown properly and there were some real serious conflicts,” said Commander Hadfield.  

“There were crew members having fist fights. But we realised if we were going to live in space and not just quickly visit there the psychological and interpersonal part becomes much more important. We really want to put the best people onto the rocket ship.” 

In the first episode, Moore initially failed to impress at a task where the contestants were asked to learn to fly and hover a helicopter. She was also dropped out of a bleep-test, a measure of sprinting and endurance, early.

“That was really tough for me,” she said. “I mean the last time I ran was to try to catch the bus or plane. Like sprinting isn’t part of my regime.”

DrKevinFong, a former medical advisor for Nasa, who is also rating the candidates, said: “Being an astronaut places extreme demands on the human body. You need to be at the peak of your physical fitness.”

Commander Hadfield added: “In order to be an astronaut you need three things, number one you need a healthy body, number two has a proven ability to learn complicated things and the third you want people who have proven ability to make good decisions when the consequences really matter.

“You choose doctors because they make life or death decisions or pilots because they are always in that boat. They are looking for more subtle things, is this a person I want to fly in space with.”

However, Moore fared better in tests where they were asked to draw blood from their own veins, and stay in a claustrophobic sphere for 20 minutes. 

“Because of my experiments in quantum optics, and before that, I was in condensed matter which was like nanometre precision I think the skill set I learned with those experiments does play to my strengths,” she said. 

"Reality and experience made me believe that dream was impossible," she said. "It's not something that tends to come up at the career fair, and it just fell off my radar. Until I heard about this show."

She first learned about the television programme while at a dinner party around Christmas 2016 and dashed outside to begin her application immediately.

When she was told she had been accepted, she said she was "absolutely thrilled".

"It was incredible, it was intimidating, it was nerve-wracking - I have never experienced anything like it," she said.

"Dance training and physics helps me prepare to a certain level, mentally and physically, for many challenges, but this was something entirely different."

Moore is not permitted to disclose how she fared in the show, saying only that while her physical fitness and mental resilience had proved an asset, other challenges were more difficult. 

One task, she said, was akin to "trying to tame a wild bull being stung by a bee."

Following the show, she has resolved to continue her training, aiming to get her pilot's license, learning Chinese or Russian, and volunteering as a part-time firefighter to gain experience of teamwork.

She will also be completing her PhD.

Articles