At a time when geopolitics increasingly extends beyond Earth’s borders, Group Captain Prashanth Nair of the Indian Air Force, one of India’s astronaut-designates offered a grounded, often humorous look at what it really means to prepare for space travel, at the session “Sky Is Not the Limit: On the Astro Trail” at MBIFL 2026.

A fighter pilot with over 25 years of service and a trained test pilot, the kind who pushes aircraft through their full operating limits -he described the astronaut journey as equal parts science, survival and self-awareness. Hailing from Nenmara in Palakkad, he laughed about how people back home casually ask when he is “coming back from the Moon.”

Like Big Boss, but better

India, he said, is stepping decisively into the global space race. With the Gaganyaan mission and longer-term plans for an Indian space station by 2035, the push is not symbolic. “It’s not just that Indians want to go to space, the world wants India in space,” he said.

Training, he explained, is relentless and wide-ranging: centrifuge runs, extreme weather survival, medical readiness, engineering basics and systems design reviews. “Be a plumber, electrician, medic — you should know everything,” he said, describing how astronauts are trained to handle failures without waiting for help. Team selection also includes deep psychological evaluation. “Like Bigg Boss, but in a good sense,” he joked focused on compatibility, not elimination.

Exposure to Carbon dioxide

He spoke vividly about the physical strain from high-G centrifuge sessions to controlled carbon dioxide exposure training used to increase tolerance and the strange practicalities of orbital life, including space toilets and microgravity basics. Yet the deeper message stayed philosophical.

Space, he said, teaches gratitude. Oxygen, gravity, cultural diversity — the things we get “for free” on Earth stop feeling ordinary when you train to live without them. His advice: drop FOMO (fear of missing out) and move toward ROMO — relief of missing out. Stay curious “like a one-year-old.” Don’t rush past the present moment.

In a world racing toward AI and automation, he drew a simple line: machines can process, but only humans can experience.