NASA Is Preparing a 17-Year-Old Girl to Fulfill Her Dream of Becoming the First Human on Mars
Alyssa Carson, 17, might be just in her teens, but she's already an astronaut-in-training with NASA. Her goal — to become the very first person to set foot on Mars.
Ever since she was 3 years old, Carson has been taken with the idea of being an astronaut and going to outer space, courtesy of a cartoon show called "The Backyardigans," according to Teen Vogue. At a young age, she already nurtured a dream of becoming one of the first humans to explore the red planet.
"Daddy, I want to be an astronaut, and be one of the people that go to Mars," she said to her father at a very young age, as quoted by the Daily Mail. It's a good thing that she is getting a relatively early start in her spacefaring career — realistically speaking, it would take NASA until around the year 2033 to put together a feasible manned mission to Mars.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Carson will be 32 years old by then, and she will likely have plenty of training hours under her belt by the time she flies off to the red planet to help put up the first Martian colony for the human race.
"I thought, 'This red planet is so cool'" Carson said, looking back at her younger days of watching the five animal friends in "The Backyardigans" explore the red planet with the help of their imagination.
"I started watching videos of rovers landing on Mars. I had a gigantic map of Mars in my room I would look at. We started getting telescopes so we could look at space," she recalled.
She is now a member NASA codenamed "Blueberry," a designation given to her as the agency's youngest-ever astronaut in training. Carson is also one of those teens that have their whole life planned out ahead of them.
"I would become an astronaut, go to Mars, come back, and then be a teacher or the president," she outlined her plans for the future.
