The First Person to Go to Mars: 17-year-old Alyssa Carson

A young girl from the USA wants to shoot for the stars. Ever since Alyssa Carson was a little girl, she wanted to set foot on Mars. And her dream hasn’t stopped while she grew up. She made her life’s work to become an astronaut and be the first human to visit the Red Planet.

It all started when she was three years old, Carson says in an interview:

“I thought, ‘This red planet is so cool.’ 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.”

An Accomplished Young Girl Reaching for The Stars

When she turned 16, her list of accomplishments was quite long, and they were all done at the same time as she was going to school. She has witnessed 3 Space Shuttle launches; she attended Space Camp 7 times, Space Academy 3 times, multiple Sally Ride Camps, and Robotics Academy once. She is the youngest graduate of Advanced Space Academy.

Carson even attended the MER 10 panel in Washington DC after NASA invited her in 2013 to discuss missions to Mars on NASA TV.

Then, she was elected to be one of the seven ambassadors to represent the mission to colonize Mars in 2030 – Mars One.

Carson was accepted in October 2016 at the Advanced Possum Academy, getting her certificate to go to space and become an astronaut trainee.

If everything works out until 2033, Carson could be on the first trip to Mars and spend two or three years to colonize it, grow food and conduct science experiments while searching for signs of life.

The last years have been quite busy for the 17-year-old, all to get ready for her future mission. After her father enrolled her in 2008 in a U.S. space camp, she enjoyed her time that she went to the other three space camps in Quebec and Turkey. Carson became the first person that attended all three NASA space camps.

NASA is working with Carson to make sure her dreams will become a reality and as soon as she is 18-years-old, she can send an application to become an astronaut.

Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.