Meganne Christian was once described as a “unique” individual by the former Australian Space Agency chief technology officer, Aude Vignelles.
It was a valid observation.
Christian, a 37-year-old engineering graduate from Wollongong, needed to be both memorable and remarkably different to stand out from the many applicants aspiring to become astronauts.
In 2022, she was one of 17 people selected from 22,500 applicants to become a reservist astronaut for the European Space Agency (ESA).Selection was a lengthy and arduous process that involved multiple memory, medical and psychological tests, held over a period of 18 months.
But she says the toughest part of the process was answering a series of hypothetical questions from a panel.
Most were expected questions that could be posed by journalists or on scenarios that could take place on the International Space Station.
But one question threw her. She was asked what she would tell a nine-year-old who had just seen a video of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster.
“This [theoretical] child asks me, ‘Why would I want to go to space if I knew I might not come back?'”
It’s a tough question to answer for an adult, let alone knowing how to frame it in a way that’s understandable for a child. “That was my most difficult question … But I tried to relate it to situations that a child might encounter, like wanting to learn about things and maybe climbing a tree knowing that you might fall, but you want to get up there and learn more about it,” she adds.
“But also showing all the work that goes in to make these [space] missions as safe as possible.”
That sense of adventure is ingrained in Christian and is undoubtedly one of the many reasons why this future astronaut from Australia is ready to take great risks in the name of exploration.
Humble beginnings
Christian was born in the United Kingdom to New Zealander parents, but when she was five her family moved to Wollongong.
As a young girl she enjoyed school and being close to the beach. And she earned a black belt in the Korean martial art Hapkido.
“I definitely attribute a lot of my adventurousness to my family. I think my family’s go-to holiday — if it wasn’t camping at Christmas time — was going whitewater rafting somewhere.”
“It was a passion of my dad’s, and so I’ve done many whitewater rafting holidays, and that has led into doing other kinds of adventure sports as well.”After high school, she did her engineering degree and her PhD in industrial chemistry at the University of New South Wales. Then she moved to Bologna in Italy in 2014. She spent nine years in Italy and worked as a researcher at the National Research Council of Italy on nanomaterials and alternative energy applications.
As a result she has four citizenships: Australian, New Zealander, British and Italian.
White Mars
Her career path saw her spend a year conducting research in Antarctica at Concordia Station, nicknamed “White Mars”.
“The physical conditions were tough. It got down to minus 104 degrees Celsius wind chill. I was working outside every day. We had 100 days where the sun didn’t rise. But I think the mental challenge was the bigger one,” she says.
