A journey from particle physics to outer space
Particle physics can take you a long way - even into space! Astronaut Christer Fuglesang recently jetted into orbit on his first space mission, 14 years after he left CERN to join the European Space Agency.
In CERN's years of efforts to explore the fundamentals of the Universe, it has not yet sent anyone beyond planet Earth. On 10 December 2006, Christer Fuglesang boldly went where no CERN scientist had ever gone before. The 49-year-old ex-CERN physicist-turned-astronaut embarked on his first mission on board space shuttle Discovery. Originally from Stockholm, he also had the honour of being the first Swedish national in space.
Christer Fuglesang is an astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA), a partner of the International Space Station (ISS) - a research facility that is being assembled in orbit around the Earth. Prior to joining ESA's Astronaut Corps in 1992, Christer was a physicist at CERN for 5 years. He joined the UA5 experiment as a young graduate student in 1988, contributing to studies of proton-antiproton collisions in the SPS Collider. He became a CERN Fellow, working on the CPLEAR experiment to investigate the subtle effects of CP-violation in the Kaon sector. A year later he was appointed coordinator of the particle identification sub-detector. He also worked briefly on the LHC accelerator project before taking up his new position with ESA. David Francis (PH/ATD), a friend of Christer, recalled his departure, 'his colleagues on CPLEAR met the news that he would be leaving the collaboration with a mixture of admiration and surprise. Today, learning that after many years of preparation Christer's dream has finally become reality, they are very proud and envious of the challenges and experiences he has overcome and experienced.'
In 2002, ten years after his first enrolment into 'astronaut school', Christer was selected as a crew-member of the STS-116 space shuttle mission. The mission carried out a series of complex tasks to continue the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). Christer played a major role. In particular he performed two to three spacewalks to attach a new truss section to the exterior of the space station, and changed the station's electrical power supply.
Christer's research background in physics helped to make him a prime candidate as a fledging astronaut. In addition to the close connection between particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, his hands-on experience with experimental hardware and high technology from many fields within the international environment at CERN all contributed to the job. In fact for Christer, one of the hardest parts of the lengthy training to achieve his dream of going into space was not so much the practical tasks but having to learn to speak Russian for cosmonaut training and ESA-Russian project collaborations. A scientist at heart, he continues to conduct experiments, such as the SilEye experiment to investigate light flashes in the eyes experienced by most astronauts in space. He also initiated the DESIRE project to simulate and estimate the radiation environment inside the ISS. For the current mission, he conducted a series of experiments to assess the effects of cosmic radiation on human physiology. He also wore a personal dosimeter to measure the cumulated dose of radiation received through the flight.
Christer's first space mission lasted 13 days. Meanwhile, any CERN physicists looking for a challenge beyond finding the Higgs boson may take note of the following. The last round of recruitment for potential astronauts received 22000 applications for about 10 places. Even if successful, there can be a long wait for the first trip - Christer has waited 14 years for his big moment. If these did not put you off, other criteria for selection include: a team player with good social skills, excellent health and physical condition, a low level of aggression, strong motivation and good powers of concentration. Furthermore, the mentally unstable need not apply!
