Alyssa Carson Preps to Be the First Teen on Mars
At 3, Alyssa Carson watched The Backyardigans blast off to Mars and that moment launched a lifelong mission. Known as “Blueberry,” she’s become the only person to attend every NASA Space Camp, from the U.S. to Canada and Turkey. But Alyssa didn’t just collect camp badges, by age 15, she’d joined the Advanced PoSSUM Space Academy, mastering microgravity, G‑forces, decompression, and underwater survival training aligned with methods astronauts use, like underwater neutral‑buoyancy to rehearse spacewalks.
By 18, she was piloting planes and diving into scuba certification and now studies astrobiology at Florida Tech, scouring clues on whether life could exist on Mars. Her science track is more than passion, it’s purpose. She’s putting in real lab work, prepping for future soil analysis missions that could identify Martian life.
Her journey is dotted with moments that sizzle: floating weightless in simulated microgravity (she calls it “the hardest to describe to people”); speaking at NASA’s MER‑10 panel at age 12; and dreaming of a 2033 Mars mission where she’ll plant flags, grow food, and hunt for life in the Martian dirt .
Most powerful? Her drive to inspire. She’s actively confronting the gender gap in STEM. Women earn only ~32% of STEM degrees in the U.S. and uses her story to encourage girls to chase science dreams.
Why Alyssa’s Story Matters to You?
- Big dreams start small: A cartoon sparked her journey and follow-through turned it real.
- Baby steps in action: From space camps to certifications, every layer of effort counts.
- Make science human: Weightless flight? Scuba certs? These are real training tools with proven science.
- Representation matters: Alyssa’s journey shouts: Girls belong in STEM. She adds impact by mentoring and publicly speaking.
- Her mission = Your inspiration: Whether you want to code software, fight climate change, or rewrite stories her journey proves starting young, staying curious, and practicing daily gets you far
In a world where many say Mars is too far away for a teen to reach, Alyssa Carson replies: “We are the Mars generation.” She doesn’t wait. She trains. She shows up. And she inspires. Maybe that’s what your passion, your Mars, looks like when you start pointing your telescope at it today.Tell us what your passion is, by writing to us at friends@genwe.today.