NASA Trains 17-Yr-Old To Be First Human On Mars

17-year-old Alyssa Carson is currently training with NASA in order to become part of the first human mission to Mars. The mission is set to take place in 2033.

In January 2013, Alyssa was invited to join NASA TV’s MER 10 panel in Washington DC to discuss future missions to Mars. She was later chosen as one of seven ambassadors for the mission to send humans on Mars called Mars One. She currently resides in Lousiana, US.

Alyssa has been obsessed with the thought of becoming an astronaut since she was a child. At the age of three, she watched a cartoon called The Backyardigans after which she became intrigued by the solar system

Alyssa said to Teen Vogue, "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.”

Read: Aspiring Martian Astronaut Is New American Girl Doll

Alyssa cannot officially apply to NASA's training program until she is 18. However, the agency is working with her to prepare her in advance. She is the youngest person ever to graduate from Advanced Space Academy. Furthermore, she’s the first and only person to complete the NASA Passport Program, having visited all 14 of NASA’s visitor centers located across nine US states. She is also the first in the world to have completed all three NASA Space Camps (United States, Canada, and Turkey).

Teen Vogue reported, "She says other groups from SpaceX to MarsOne are considering sending her into space, although not to Mars, much earlier."

“If we can find a mission for her in the next two years, she will be the first kid in the world to go to space,” said her father Bert Carson, who travels with her everywhere. “If we can get it together before she’s 20, she’ll be the first teenager.”

Picture Credit: Lipstiq.com

Nimisha Is An Intern With SheThePeople.TV