The Astronaut Selection Test Book

The Astronaut Selection Test Book by Tim Peake and the European Space Agency is an interactive astronaut training and puzzle book featuring 100 real tests and exercises based on ESA’s astronaut selection process. Combining knowledge, problem-solving and practical scenarios, it challenges readers to test the cognitive, psychological and interpersonal skills involved in becoming an astronaut.

• Activity: Astronaut selection tests, puzzles, quizzes and training exercises
• Difficulty: Easy to fiendishly hard
• Includes: 100 tests and exercises based on the ESA astronaut selection process
• Tests: Logic, visual perception, memory, concentration, mental arithmetic, teamwork, leadership and more
• Suitable for: Readers of all ages interested in space, astronaut training and testing their abilities

More about the book
Work through the different stages of astronaut selection, beginning with the application process and the personal, professional, medical and psychological qualities ESA looks for in prospective astronauts. Along the way, Tim Peake draws on his own experience of applying in 2008, when he was one of six astronauts selected from more than 8,000 applicants, to explain how candidates might approach questions about their motivations, strengths and limitations.

The tests explore cognitive capabilities and psychomotor performance through exercises in spatial awareness, visual perception, memory retention, technical information, concentration, mental arithmetic and measurement. Other sections move beyond individual aptitude to consider the interpersonal demands of spaceflight, with scenarios designed around teamwork, leadership and decision-making in the confined environment of the International Space Station.

The final part looks towards future crewed missions to Mars, with questions, activities, puzzles and interviews informed by research into the challenges of deep-space travel. Illustrated sections also offer a closer look at real astronaut training, including cave training, confined environments and neutral buoyancy training.

More books about astronaut training and mental challenges
If you're looking for books similar to The Astronaut Selection Test Book, these titles explore different aspects of astronaut experience, training and mental challenge, from Tim Peake’s first-hand accounts of spaceflight to dedicated brain-training exercises.

• Ask an Astronaut by Tim Peake: Like The Astronaut Selection Test Book, this draws directly on Peake’s experience as an ESA astronaut and explores the realities of spaceflight, but through answers to questions about becoming an astronaut and living and working in space rather than selection tests and puzzles.
• Perfect Brain Training by Philip Carter: Shares the book’s emphasis on testing mental agility through logic, aptitude and problem-solving challenges, but focuses on general brain training rather than placing those exercises within astronaut selection and training.
• Limitless by Tim Peake: Provides further context for the astronaut-selection and training experiences explored in The Astronaut Selection Test Book, following Peake’s journey through military flying and test piloting to ESA selection and spaceflight. Rather than testing the reader’s own abilities, it tells that journey through autobiography.