A Photo and Its Story
Alyssa Carson fell in love with Mars when she was just 3 years old. Ever since she has been consumed by one goal: to be the first person to leave footprints on the surface of the Red Planet. Could her dream soon come true?
Fascinating pictures and the story behind them
It took precisely 24 minutes to light the fire in her belly: 3-year-old Alyssa Carson was sitting in front of the TV at her home in Louisiana when the characters in the cartoon she was watching set off on a trip to Mars. That left such an impression on her that she began dreaming about it, and before long she decided that she had to go to Mars herself…
Now 20 years old, Alyssa hasn’t changed her mind one bit, and her determination has led to reports that NASA is training her to be an astronaut. But despite her passion for making the trip to Mars, she is not actually in training with or being prepared by the space agency to become an astronaut or take part in the first human mission to Mars. Nevertheless, she is committed to her goal and continues to put in the work to make her dream come true.
But if determination alone were enough, she would be there already. By age 12, Alyssa had taken part in NASA space camps in the U.S., Canada, and Turkey and attended multiple Space Shuttle launches. She has visited each of NASA’S 14 visitor centers, thereby becoming the first person to qualify for the NASA “Passport to Explore Space.” And while the average age of past astronaut candidates was 34 years old, Alyssa is not wasting any time:
Since completing high school, she has been concentrating full time on her Mars ambitions and has enrolled at the Florida Institute of Technology to study astrobiology. She has also learned three foreign languages— French, Spanish, and Chinese; she got her pilot’s license, and she says she’s “certified” to go to space. But it’s not only the adventure aspect that attracts her to this goal. Alyssa is also concerned about the future of humankind: “When the Sun runs out of fuel, conditions on Earth are going to change drastically,” she says. “Mars won’t necessarily save us, but I see it as a first step on the way to colonizing someplace else.”
Alyssa is well aware the mission will be dangerous. Due to its thin atmosphere Mars cannot protect astronauts from cosmic radiation, plus it has extreme temperatures. Solutions will have to be found, but Alyssa is willing to take on the risk: “Before the Sun burns out, we are going to have to move anyway, so we must understand the process of living on another planet.” She believes a manned Mars mission will teach us much of what we will need to know. And though the trip means being away for two years or more, her dedication will not waver. Her advice: “Never stop dreaming. Never give up. Don’t let anyone take your dreams away from you.”