13-year-old Alyssa Carlson is the first person to complete NASA’s Passport Program, and is setting her sights on being the first human to step foot on Mars. Her hard work towards becoming an astronaut has attracted the attention of NASA, who have stated that the teenager has what it takes to achieve her goal.
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Alyssa is the subject of a short BBC film charting her progress, which documents the Louisiana native as she works arm-in-arm with NASA to perform the rigorous training that is required of her. Her completion of the “Passport to Explore Space Program” required her to visit all of NASA’s Visitors Centers across nine states, which Alyssa completed within a matter of five months, the first person to do so. Alyssa, who speaks English, Spanish, French and Chinese, said to the BBC that she wants to visit Mars because “it’s a place no one has been.”
NASA have awarded Alyssa the name of “Blueberry,” and she has already undergone training with the space agency and was also the first person to have visited all three of its world space camps. She even gave a lecture to a camp in Alexandria in front of 400 other budding astronauts.
Speaking of Alyssa’s progress, NASA’s Paul Foreman told the BBC: “She is of the perfect age to one day become an astronaut and eventually travel to Mars. She is doing the right thing, she is doing the right training, taking all the right steps to actually become an astronaut.”
Alyssa’s father has stated that the next 20 years of his daughter’s career has already been planned out, saying: “We have the next 20 years planned out, we know what she’s doing, she’s looking at going on a mission to mars in 2033.
“In 20 years I may not ever see her again, there are options out there where they go to Mars and don’t come back, and we’ve had those discussions, and if that’s the only option she still wants to go.”
Photos: Twitter.com/NASABlueberry1
