![spatial visualization](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/6SALZDELQEA2VZ3NSK2MW7VS6Q.jpg?w=660)
![spatial visualization](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/6SALZDELQEA2VZ3NSK2MW7VS6Q.jpg?w=660)
In 1958, the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (aka NASA) launched a search for the nation’s first spacemen. Of the 508 military candidates the agency considered, only seven would become Mercury astronauts.
In early 1959, 31 top contenders arrived at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio to endure what’s perhaps the most exhaustive battery of psychological, intellectual, and physical work-ups in modern history.
The tests
![mechanical comprehension](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/DY5OQMWA5KOQBBO5DW3AZQCQ4E.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
![Hidden figures](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/J6MPFZN5E7IPT64FGRO4U4MPWY.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
![progressive matrices](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/5BZVDIFMDGFFMRTABO5HZRJHEA.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
![Analogies](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/HYP23HR34RKMTM2UJTXHZIXJ4A.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
Hopefuls sat in extreme heat and cold, did math in 145-decibel rooms (normal conversation is 60 dB), and spent hours in isolation chambers. On top of all that, candidates took 12 intelligence tests. These exams sought to predict a wealth of unknowns: how the men would maneuver spacecraft, if they could problem-solve midflight, and whether they grasped the science that would keep them aloft. What follows is a subset of those brain teasers for you to try. May John Glenn be with you.
This article was originally published in the Spring 2018 Intelligence issue of Popular Science.