Alyssa Carson: Her Mission to Mars
- Ingrid Guo
- May 9, 2021
- 2 min read
Author: Mercedes Zobel de Ayala '22
Alyssa Carson is a 20-year-old student from Hammond, Louisiana, and from the age of 7, she knew her dream was to become a Space Engineer for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). She is the only daughter to her single father, Bert Carson, and graduated from the Baton Rouge International School as a salutatorian. She continued her education at the Florida Institute of Technology where she is now majoring in Astrobiology and will graduate in 2023. In an effort to become the first woman to go to Mars, Carson has started her journey in learning 7 languages: English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Russian, and Turkish.
Carson began her interest in space in 2008 when she attended her first space camp in Alabama which prompted her to attend six more. She went on to become the only person in history to complete the “NASA Passport Program,” meaning she completed a visit to fourteen of NASA’s visitor programs across 9 states. With her extensive knowledge at just age 14, Carson became the youngest person to participate as a panelist in the Mars Exploration Panel at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC alongside three men, all of which had a PhD. Within the same year, Carson was presented on the Steve Harvey Show as the Youngest Female Groundbreaker.
In 2016, Carson became the youngest person ever to be accepted and to attend the Advanced Possum Academy, an astronautical research and education program studying the world’s upper atmosphere and its role in changing the climate. In 2018, Carson attempted to help potential young astronauts by publishing the book So you Wanna be an Astronaut? The book has reached a wide audience and helps children around the world take steps to achieve their dreams.
Carson then went on to complete her applied and astronautic certification, meaning she is allowed to go on research missions in suborbital space. To achieve this certification she had to endure microgravity training, water survival training, decompression training, g-force training, classes in space atmosphere, space physiology, as well as different research studies. She now works to finish her pilot certification and, which will lead her one step closer to achieving her goal of becoming the first woman on Mars. Her influence on the “Mars Generation” as she likes to call it, allowed her to perform her story on TEDx. She showcased her story in Kalamata, Greece in 2014, Bucharest, Romania in 2018, and Klagenfurt, Austria in 2019. She did this tour in hopes to encourage young girls in pursuing careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
Through her Instagram (@NASAblueberry), Alyssa Carson continues to inspire young students not only to pursue STEM but to work towards achieving any of their goals. Carson will continuously be an inspiration to all and has become a catalyst in striving to bridge the age and gender gap within all aspects of the aeronautical administration in the United States.
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