FROM A YOUNG age, Cillian Murphy loved exploring and adventuring and had a keen interest in science and staring up at the stars.

A gift of a microscope and telescope set when he was still in primary school inspired the young student towards conducting his own experiments. When his family moved back to Dublin from Mexico, Murphy attended Coláiste Éanna secondary school in Dublin and took physics as a chosen subject.

After he graduated, he went on to study Physics at UCD, specialising in Astronomy and Space Science. 

Today, the 28-year-old lives and works in Budapest as a process engineer in a biofuels company. He has one main ambition in life: to become an astronaut and be one of the first Irish people to make it into space.

The European Space Agency 

Earlier this year, Murphy was one of 270 Irish people to apply for a chance to be the European Space Agency’s (ESA) next group of astronauts.

The ESA – the European body dedicated to the exploration of space – had put out the call for new candidates for the first time since 2008. Back then, a total of 8,413 people finalised their application forms. This time over 23,000 people have applied, though some applications will be deemed invalid. Still, the surge in interest has been huge.

Earlier this week, the ESA released a statement asking prospective candidates to be patient as it was still sorting through the large number of applications. The organisation said all candidates should know if they had progressed to the next stage by November at the latest.

Murphy had been expecting the call for candidates to come for some time, and was keeping himself fit and preparing as much as possible.

“Personally, for myself, it would have been great if it came another few years later,” he tells The Journal.

“I feel like there’s a little bit of critical additional experience I would love to have. But I am where I am and I’m going to give it my best shot, as I am now.”

Out of the thousands of applicants, just four to six people will be selected as career astronauts, with about 20 being selected as reserve astronauts. As Murphy notes, the competition for a spot is fierce:

“There’s no better arena to give yourself a good dose of imposter syndrome.

“But that’s also part of the excitement. It’s intimidating to see the calibre of the competition, but it’s also really inspiring to see what everyone is doing and exciting to have the opportunity to get to meet all of these people.”

The aspiring astronaut’s philosophy at times like this comes from his mother. When he was choosing which area of physics to focus on for his undergraduate degree at UCD, Murphy took the advice his mother always had for him.

“It was very much on advice from my mom, which was always to aim high when you make decisions, so even if you fall short of your goals, you still have some pretty good achievements that you can be proud of along the way.”

Achievements

Since finishing his undergraduate degree, Murphy has racked up a long list of achievements on his journey to becoming an astronaut. 

He completed a Masters degree in Space Science & Technology in 2016 and in 2018 won an Irish Research Council award to train at the European Space Agency (ESA) for two years.

Murphy – who is fluent in Spanish – worked for two years at the European Space Astronomy Centre in Madrid, Spain, as part of the Gaia Mission to help complete an astrometric survey of stars, using spacecraft observation.

More recently, he was one of six international analog astronauts to take part in the HECATE (Human Exploration in a Closed Analog Terrestrial Environment) Mission at the LunAres Research Station in Poland.

The purpose of the two-week mission was to study the impact of isolation on astronauts and to carry out a number of experiments. He says the mission was “tiring but also very exciting and fun”.

“Overall it was just exciting to be able to take this small group of people and have this experience of both contributing to this research in the field and having a small taste of what it is like to be on a mission like that.”

Irish getting to space

Anyone who travels into space becomes part of an exclusive group – fewer than 600 people have ever made the trip in the history of humanity. For many people, it is seen as the ultimate adventure, the furthest horizon of where it is possible for humans to go.

No Irish person has ever been into space, and Murphy hopes to be one of the first to do it. He is not alone in this ambition, as the 270 Irish applicants to the ESA demonstrate.

Other high profile would-be astronauts include Dr Norah Patten, a popular keynote speaker, aeronautical engineer and a global faculty member of the International Space University.

Patten is also a bioastronautics researcher with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences as part of Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere), a scientist-astronaut training programme in Florida. She has taken part in a number of programmes as part of this and is generally tipped as being likely to be the first Irish person to make it to space.

Another high-profile Irish person with space travel ambitions is Dr Niamh Shaw, an engineer, public speaker, performer and educator who has set herself the lifelong goal of making it to space. 

Shooting for the stars

For Cillian Murphy, the ambition to get into space focuses on two aspects – a personal ambition and a wider, more world-focused one.

“Space is nothing but firsts, nothing but new places, nothing but new experiences that no one else has ever had before,” he says.

“That sense of mystery, of exploration or discovery – that is extremely appealing. Not only to me, but so many other people talk about how exciting and alluring that sense of discovery is in space still.”

But other than that, Murphy talks about the “much more important motivation” of working in a career that has a positive impact and benefits the world in a real way.

“Not everyone appreciates the benefits that space research actually has in all of our day to day lives. It’s something that I have studied in some level of detail, so I appreciate that deeply,” he says.

“But I also believe that astronauts are some people who are uniquely well placed to inspire the world to be better and have the means and the resources to effect that change themselves. 

“That is then what speaks to me about being not only an explorer, but being an astronaut specifically – it gives me the opportunity to make the world better and to inspire other people to do the same.”

Sacrifices

Murphy is well aware of the sacrifices a career as an astronaut entails, both personally in his day-to-day relationships with family and friends, and physically in terms of the risks to his health and life.

“First and foremost, there’s the impact on family life, where this career demands so much time and investment and commitment to it that invariably you don’t have all of that time or resources to give to friends and family anymore,” he says.

Secondly, astronauts make a personal sacrifice in terms of their physical health.

“Maybe not everyone realises or understands just how hostile space is as an environment. You cannot go to space without a physical detriment to your health,” says Murphy.

“You’re more exposed to radiation, the impact of microgravity on your cardiovascular system, on your skeleton, is noteworthy and often not fully reversible.”

“The effect of going to space is to decrease your life expectancy. For every day that you’re up there, you can expect to live for one day less.”

As well as that, the risk of “critical failure” – an explosion during take off or some other disaster – is ever-present in space flight.

The future

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in space travel, as commercial operators like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic have captured the attention of the world’s public, and as more opportunities have opened up in the sector. 

“It’s a growing field, there’s more work, more research, more opportunities, people are more aware of it for all sorts of reasons,” says Murphy.

“So for all intents and purposes it looks like we’re coming into a new age for space travel in all regards… everything is on the precipice of an explosion that we can expect to see over the next couple of decades.”

Murphy’s whole life is geared towards working in the industry and becoming an astronaut. But while space travel is the ultimate goal, what he achieves while working towards it, in terms of personal successes and advancing the cause of space exploration more generally, is hugely important.

So would he be disappointed if he didn’t make it into space?

“Well, supposing I was to be successful in [the ongoing ESA] selection, then I would of course be disappointed to never actually be assigned to a mission and fly to space. That would be a personal disappointment,” he says.

“But, as I said, my much stronger motivation would be the impact that I could have on the world through that role which doesn’t require me to go to space. The good that I could do as an astronaut or a reserve astronaut potentially is still very much in my grasp without flying.”

And what about making it to space in general?

“I would be confident that astronaut or not, within my lifetime, anybody will be able to go to space if they really want to.”