10-12-2015
Engineer Vasco Ribeiro, alumni from the course of Geological Engineering FCT NOVA, is a candidate for a scientist-astronaut opportunity in the commercial program for the notilucentes clouds observing - Project Possum.
The Possum Project is a project developed in partnership with the NASA space agency. The opportunity to become an astronaut-scientist came up with a hobby: designing flight simulator models and share them on a Web site specializing in the subject. One of its models to commercial flights was seen by a person linked to the Possum Project, inviting Vasco Ribeiro to develop a simulator to train the procedures realization of the clouds record.
Vasco Ribeiro, also took part in the astronaut-scientist inaugural training course at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida USA. In the course, students explore different areas of knowledge of the notilucentes clouds, through theoretical classes and flights participation. There were only eight students completing the first course, including Vasco Ribeiro.
In order to participate in one of the flights scheduled for July 2017, Vasco Ribeiro seeks financing in the amount of 140,000 euros. The costs of the ten scheduled flights, each with a pilot and an astronaut-scientist, are valued in 1.9 million euros.
