I won't be in a position to apply for another two years, but if I thought there was even a chance of being accepted there're things I could do in the meantime to make myself a much more attractive applicant.
If you want potentially revolutionary, reusable space projects with some ninja materials science, there is a project rather closer to home for you, which you might be interested in:
www.reactionengines.co.uk
Thanks, the link's appreciated. I've heard of REL before, but I didn't realise they were doing quite so well at the moment!
Then ask them that. Really, competent potential hires showing early interest for that reason is the dream of every engineering/R&D HR person. They'll be very happy to tell you what you want to know if you're at all interesting for them as a potential hire. Spontaneous passionate applicants are usually much more interesting to a high tech company than nearly anyone a recruiter can come up with.