Astronaut Kerouac from USA

I first encountered an astronaut in 5th grade when I met Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, and her inspiring story hooked me. Then I met Buzz Aldrin at a space festival. Both stories were incredible enough to make me wonder a bit more about space. Those two fateful encounters somehow made me realize something about space, and it was something I would never forget.

After that, in my 5th grade class, we were told to do a report on something we liked. I chose space. We were given containers with books and magazines on our subjects, and each were told to make a PowerPoint presentation on the information we got from our containers. We also collected some of it off of the internet. My presentation was the longest, and more likely than not, the most boring. But out of all that, I became convinced I wanted to be an Astronaut! Over the summer, I did a lot of research on space and the possibility of going to Mars. This research was a way to see how much I wanted to learn. It also had me a tad bit more interested in space than ever before. I was sure this would be temporary, but my “Space Odyssey” didn’t end in 5th grade.

In 6th grade I decided to not only inform myself about space, but also others. I decide to ask me teacher to see if I could teach, and do a lesson on space, and my idea was accepted. This prompted me to realize how  uninformed people were about space. It also showed me that I had acquired a lot of information over the years. Then, our teacher had us make a documentary on a sub-topic of space. My group and I chose space travel, and narrowed it down to one particular topic of space travel: Propulsion Systems. But we went even farther and narrowed it down to Franklin Chang-Diaz’s VASIMR (Variable SpecifIc Magnetoplasma Rocket), and decided to focus on it, and the information we had. This narrowing down of topics had a few meanings to it, one of which was that I had interested others in space by teaching them. It also meant that I found the best team, and that I would be a good leader. We were also told to get in contact with someone who might know more than we did. I contacted my friend, an engineering professor at SDSU, and got no more from him than we knew. We almost lost all hope.

I was determined to find someone though, and tried contacting NASA’s Phil Sumrall, a rocket scientist who had worked for 40 years at NASA and was working on NASA’s current program, the Orion Constellation Project. By the time NASA contacted me, Mr. Sumrall had taken the initiative to call me before NASA officially gave me his phone number. Him contacting me was something I felt was leading me in the right direction. His contact was also another fateful encounter and showed me that meeting renowned people was going to be necessary for my dream in the making. It also showed to others that I was capable of getting into contact with “big guns,” and ideally a completing my dream. A little while later, I recorded an interview with him over the phone, and constructed my documentary using his information and ours. After all of this, my astronaut dream was just getting bigger and better. But it didn’t end there, and for 2 years, my goal had absolutely no advancement, until Christmas 2012.

The next influence was directly from the heart of space exploration. On Christmas morning, I opened a package that contained a Space Camp shirt, a schedule departing from San Diego heading to Huntsville, Alabama. Space Camp is located in Huntsville, and it was also where Phil Sumrall worked, and where all of the rocket parts, plane parts, and other aeronautical vehicles were designed and tested. This was a dream come true, and it taught me that my dream should not be that, but be reality. At the end of Space Camp, Mr. Sumrall picked me up and granted me access to Redstone Arsenal, where he and Wernher von Braun worked. It was also there that my dream ended and became more than a dream, it became reality. I was also able to see that being an astronaut is a hard, demanding job, that takes a toll on your body.

My dream, which was without development for 2 years, became more than a 

goal, it became reality. The astronauts, the documentary, the lesson, all got the 

goal going. But Space Camp ended that. Space Camp not only helped me 

realize that going to Mars would be possible, it also interested me even more 

about Mars. Those fateful encounters changed my whole point of view on 

space. 

My plan: become an astronaut, no matter what. My newer plan: I will become 

not only an astronaut, but the first person on Mars. See you there!!