For the first time in five years, NASA has assembled a top-notch team of nine future astronauts – out of an applicant pool of 3,500 – for its Constellation program to reach the (been-there-done-that) moon to and (fingers-crossed) Mars. Flying into deep space means that not only will the journey last much longer than the usual space gig, but the Martian terrain and potential obstacles, i.e. asteroids, are also different from prior missions. For that hearty Gang of Nine, it means amped up training.

Popular Science reported on the revamped “astronaut boot camp” that the astronaut hopefuls (they won’t become full-fledged spacemen until 2011) began this fall, complete with the standard underwater anti-gravity labs, G-force altitude chambers and flight simulators. But the physical training will be more intensive than usual to prepare the trainees’ bodies for the extreme toll of spending extensive time in space and high radiation exposure.