Girl, who may never return to Earth. Alyssa Carson
“Always follow your dream and don’t let anyone take it from you.” — Alyssa Carson
Its a well known quote said by a future Martian. Lots of kids dream of becoming an astronaut, but Alyssa Carson is actually doing it. Alyssa Carson an American space enthusiast and undergraduate student. Ever since she was a little girl, Alyssa Carson has had her heart set on the stars. At only 3 years old, she told her father, “Daddy, I want to be an astronaut, and be one of the people that go to Mars.” He had no idea that this seemingly offhand statement would actually become the birth of a meaningful lifelong endeavor.
Carson was born on March 10, 2001 in Hammond, Louisiana,[ the only daughter of a single father, Bert Carson. She graduated from Baton Rouge International School, a pre-school through 12th grade private school, in 2019.
At just 19 years old, Alyssa’s list of accomplishments include witnessing 3 Space Shuttle launches, attending Space Camp 7 times, Space Academy 3 times, Robotics Academy once, youngest to graduate Advanced Space Academy, and multiple Sally Ride Camps. In 2012 and 2013, she furthered her education at Space Camp Turkey and Space Camp Canada, becoming the first person to attend all three NASA Space Camps in the world. Alyssa is also the first to complete the NASA Passport program, visiting all 14 NASA Visitor’s Centers stretching across 9 states. In January 2013, NASA invited her to be on the MER 10 panel in Washington DC to discuss future missions to Mars live on NASA TV. She was later selected as one of seven ambassadors representing Mars One, a mission to establish a human colony on Mars in 2030. In October of 2016 Alyssa was the youngest to be accepted and graduate the Advanced Possum Academy, officially making her certified to go to space and an astronaut trainee.
More than anything, Alyssa is driven by an insatiable desire to live life to the fullest; to break through the ceiling of possibility and make a positive and lasting impact on the world.
In 2017, Carson was named one of nine Louisiana Young Heroes, an award given to exceptional high school students by Louisiana Public Broadcasting. In 2019, Carson was given the LSU Women’s Center Esprit de Femme Award and was the youngest recipient of that award to date. Carson was honored by Louisiana Life magazine as a 2020 Louisianan of the Year in the science category.
“To be able to actually apply as an astronaut, I need a master’s degree and then some work experience. It’s pretty tough competition, I guess. But also, there’s a lot of stuff to keep in mind when you do apply. If you aren’t selected, it may have nothing to do with your resume or anything about you, there’s a lot of stuff that goes into the consideration of it.” — Alyssa Carson.
In an interview with ABC.net, she mentioned , “I was talking to a group of middle school girls, and one of them was like, ‘Hey, I love science in space, but I also love fashion, can I design spacesuits?’ [And my answer was] of course you can, that’s definitely something you can go into, maybe making the next futuristic trendy spacesuit. The spacesuits that SpaceX recently started using were actually designed by someone who typically designed superhero costumes.”
Questions asked to Alyssa Carson.
Being a teenager is hard enough without doing some of the things you’ve done. Have you had to make sacrifices?
“Balancing my time has been the hardest part of what I’ve done so far. Mainly just because trying to be in school full-time while doing the training that I’ve done, keeping up with everything is just impossible. I mean there’s definitely the sacrifices, but I definitely believe what I’m getting out of it is worth it.”
Why is the mission to Mars so important?
“I think the most important part of the mission to Mars is inspiring humans to realize that we can live on and go to other places. I definitely think that humans will eventually need to get to that point — where we’re exploring and possibly living in other places besides Earth. I think that Mars is kind of that first baby step in teaching us that.
I don’t think it ends with Mars. I’m hoping, after this generation, the next generation has the capability to go to, like, a moon of Jupiter — [so] we continue learning more about the solar system. Mars is just that first step into seeing how we can accomplish that”
How long would a journey to Mars take?
“With the current technology that we’re going to be using for the mission to Mars, it’s going to take six months to get there. Then astronauts would live there for about 20 months, and then it would take about 9 months to come back. They’re looking at technology to make it shorter, but for the first missions we’d have to use the older engines.”
She will never get married, she will never have kids, but she is giving her life to science, respect++;
