nasablueberry/Instagram
Some girls dream about becoming celebrities or models. Well, Alyssa Carson’s not like other girls. Instead, this teenage astronaut wants to become one of the first women on mars – perhaps even the first human ever!
Dreaming About Mars
As you might imagine, Alyssa Carson has been dreaming of becoming an astronaut since a child. She even started studying space before most could even conceive of it. After visiting her first space camp at seven, she knew the stars held her entire future. Now, at age 17, Carson has already started training to become one of the first women on Mars.
“I had people teaching me all about space history, teaching me all about the future of space, doing simulators, building the model rocket. It was just basically all of the information that I had been craving,” Carson explained. “When I was little saying I wanted to be an astronaut and go to Mars, Mars wasn’t really possible…It wasn’t on the table. It wasn’t something that people were looking at doing, but now, like, in today’s world…the hard work is actually paying off because it is becoming a reality.”
A Teenage Astronaut
Since attending her first space camp at age seven, Carson has made quite a bit of progress. She’s watched three Space Shuttle launches in-person, visited Space Camp six more times, and even moved on to the much more prestigious Space Academy. Carson’s also the youngest female graduate of the Advanced Space Academy.
Now, Carson’s going to become part of humanity’s mission to Mars. While the tech to transport humans to Mars isn’t here quite yet, it’s on the horizon. “We do know that we have the technology to actually reduce the time to said weeks with newer plasma engines,” Carson said. “A human can do a year’s work of a rover in an hour on Mars. Just because we have the intuitions, you know, we can say ‘Oh that looks interesting, let’s grab that! Oh, this is awesome,’ whereas a rover needs every command, there’s a time delay with Mars.”
Alyssa Carson – First Woman on Mars?
Although Carson has yet to join NASA or SpaceX‘s astronaut programs, she hopes to join one soon. Meanwhile, given all her research and training, the young astronaut-in-training has a fantastic vision of what she and others will do on the Red Planet. “Testing the soil, studying the atmosphere, looking for signs of bacterial life in the water that’s on Mars…colonizing, terraforming, all of those have kind of been thrown out there and mentioned,” Carson explained to Western Mass News.
Meanwhile, as you might imagine, Carson has become an inspiration to young girls everywhere, inspiring them to take up education and careers in STEM fields. “Don’t be afraid to get curious about different jobs that you can go into…and really don’t be afraid to talk about your dreams and tell people about what you want to do…” the 17-year-old Carson said. “No one is going to know that you need their help or that they have a connection that would be great for you if you don’t tell them what you’re interested in doing.”
Sources: Instagram, Western Mass News.
