Education prepares students for dreams to come true

On October 9, 2013 Alyssa Carson became the first person to complete the NASA Passport Program by going to all NASA Visitor Centers in the U.S. She also has attended every official Space Camp in the world. Alyssa wants to be one of the first humans on Mars.

Many children dream of being something they may never achieve. Not because they are incapable, but because their dreams were never taken seriously. They failed to believe they were achievable or did not dedicate the time and attention to prepare for success.

At 3 years old Alyssa Carson of Baton Rouge started talking to her father about being an astronaut. Bert Carson let her dream. Together they have traveled to 16 countries where Alyssa, at 15, has been the student as well as the guest speaker. She not only inspires other children to greatness, she is training for her dream. If she hits her goal, Alyssa will be part of the first international team of astronauts landing on Mars.

Last week the Carsons were at the Main Branch of the Iberia Parish Library as part of a personal project to visit all 64 parishes in Louisiana. Alyssa presented the library a copy of “The Astronaut Instruction Manual” by Mike Mongo. She wrote the foreword to the book which was published as a introduction to practical skills for future space explorers.

Dreaming Big

The three year planned exploration of Mars is not a fantasy. NASA already is building the rockets to take the adventurers on their mission. Alyssa, too, has been in training and is one of the space ambassadors often called on by the NASA program to speak on panels where she is the only person of her age with expectations of walking on Mars. At 12 she shared the stage with three PhD scientists and an astronaut.

“Alyssa is the first person to visit all NASA official visitor centers,” said Paul Foerman, Team Lead at NASA’s Stennis Space Center Office of Communication. “She strikes me as a very determined young lady and is the perfect age to be going to Mars in the future.”

Foerman works for the space center where the rockets are being tested that will deliver the astronauts to Mars. One of his missions is to inspire the next generation of explorers.

“We are thrilled to have people like Alyssa pursuing their dreams and who want to be astronauts. We need people in all professions not just astronauts to eventually reach Mars,” Foerman said.

When Alyssa was only 3-years-old she was inspired by TV cartoon friends making an imaginary trip to Mars. Now she is living her dream and projecting education goals with the intention of being among the first to live on Mars. Her destination date — 2033.

“I remember her coming to me and asking if anyone has been to Mars,” Carson said. “We still have the poster of the episode.”

“After that I kept asking questions and collecting things about Mars,” Alyssa said. “At five I started studying a map of Mars. Ever since then I’ve been studying, going around the world speaking and training — doing whatever I can to give myself a higher chance of being selected when I apply for this mission.”

Early Education

Alyssa began her preparation as an international astronaut when she began school. She attends Baton Rouge International School, the only school in the United States known for training students with three additional languages throughout their education. In kindergarten she began learning French, Chinese and Spanish. Her French has been mistaken as native by visitors to the Louisiana state capital.

The expectation is that by the time the Mars mission occurs, an international group of astronauts will be working together and she will need to know how to communicate in other languages. She has recently started learning Russian.

“The idea is the world is going to Mars, so I will be able to speak with them in their native language,” she said. “Russia is very important to the space program so I’m learning Russian now.”

Carson said she also learned a little Portuguese last year and Turkish when they where in those countries. However, without conversations, it is hard to keep a command of the language. It’s not that Alyssa’s a genius, she just works very hard, Carson said.

Setting Travel Goals

Carson said they make themselves available, but like this interview, opportunities seem to find them. Alyssa speaks to all ages and inspires them to follow their dreams no matter how crazy they may be.

“I have nothing to do with space. I traveled the world as a freelance videographer. I didn’t push her into it, she pulled me in,” Carson said. “I feel like what I did traveling the world trained me for her traveling and dealing with media because that’s what I did.”

Two summers ago the Carsons visited 27 cities in 11 countries in 32 days while touring Europe. Alyssa was the speaker or trainer along the way and on college campuses. Alyssa believes that to explore deep space is part of an inevitable plan to find alternative places to live. For any number of reasons, if the earth should no longer exist, it will be the colonies established on other planets or solar systems that will help perpetuate human existence beyond planet earth.

Into the Future

NASA is not closed for business. The Shuttle program closed down but that was strategic.

“A lot of money was spent going into space, but that helps the economy down here. For every dollar spent in the space program, five dollars come back,” Carson said. “Most people think the space program is a drain on the economy, but it really returns because it creates jobs. Working people spend money. Everything NASA does becomes a spring board because since the technology is federally funded, it becomes public domain which gives inventors new opportunities to advance.”

Velcro is just one of the technologies used by NASA that is now part of everyday life, Alyssa said.

“NASA’s Space Shuttle program has ended because it was in a lower orbit, only 250 miles above the earth, circling the earth,” Foerman said, “The program lasted more than 35 years and cost a great deal of money. It ended to allow a shift in expenditures that could fund deeper space exploration, to the moon and beyond.”

NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans is building the center core of the rocket that will help accomplish the Mars flight. Alyssa is often a part of the family days or tours because she inspires the workers to say, “this is who we’re building the rocket for,” Carson said.

“Knowing that she was inspired by a television show where the cast was acting out a Mission to Mars, makes me believe that the concept of exploration and discovery is in our DNA and inspires me to keep producing television and webisodes about space science,” said Janet Ivey, creator of award winning children’s space series, Janet’s Planet. “I believe Buzz Aldrin himself would surely be happy to know that Alyssa wants very much to put her boots on Mars by 2033. We here at Janet’s Planet can’t wait to applaud her as one of the first females on the Red Planet.”

“After me, perhaps someone will take that first step to explore other solar systems and galaxies. Eventually that’s what it is all leading to. The first step of traveling to other planets is travel to Mars,” Alyssa said.

A Master Plan

William W. “Bill” Parsons, former Center Director John F. Kennedy Space Center, sat down with Alyssa and her father to suggest a list of steps for education. She wants to become a mission specialist rather than flight astronaut.

To achieve that goal, they set a course. First, Alyssa plans to study science at Cambridge in the United Kingdom. For a masters in space engineering she will attend the International Space University in Strasbourg, Alsace, in northeast France, before finishing at MIT in Astrobiology.

That should bring Alyssa through six years to accomplish her PhD at 24 at which time she will apply to the astronaut selection program. Once accepted, the intense training begins with a mission assignment and spending one to three years — or more — practicing for that mission.

In the summer, the International Space University conducts a nine-week program somewhere in the northern hemisphere. Last year it was in Ohio. ISU faculty member John Connolly arranged for Alyssa to sit in a couple of weeks. The 2016 session is in Israel. When he returns, Connolly is expected to be put in charge of the Mars mission. NASA had loaned him to the ISU, Carson said.

The Carsons are waiting to see if Alyssa is approved for a program in October that will allow her to be certified to do a test flight into space in the next two to three years. She has the potential to become the youngest person in space.

“That would be pretty cool to apply to be an astronaut and be able to say, ‘I’ve already been in space.’ That’s a plus,” Alyssa said.

Good Parenting

Carson said the best parenting decision he made was teaching Alyssa time management in kindergarten. When she came home from school, while things were still fresh on her mind, homework was done.

When an assignment was given but not due until weeks away, Alyssa would complete it early. With the habit established, now when called upon to make trips to be interviewed by “The Learning Channel,” homework is not an issue. It is already done. She completes her assignments ahead of time, he said.

Last summer she was taking masters classes with ISU and would come in saying the information was often like a review. She had been studying space the same 10 years the college students had been studying.

When Alyssa started actively engaging with NASA they told Carson they had their eye on about 20 young people. One NASA executive said Alyssa is a very determined kid. There are those who want to go into space and those who are preparing to go to Mars. Alyssa is one of the later.

Alyssa will tell children to find the subject they like best in school, then look at the careers that go with that subject. Very often that is where they will find their dream.

She has often heard and now uses the Greek proverb, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” As an astronaut in training, she knows her footprints will just be the beginning for others to follow.

Contact Alyssa through her website at NASABlueberry.com. To learn more about space, visit NASA.gov or go to JanetsPlanet.org.