NASA Space Camp Recruiting Kids For Future Mars Explorations?

NASA initiated a program that would prepare future astronauts. The best candidates might have the opportunity to join U.S. space missions and travel to Mars.

NDTV reported that NASA is organizing space camps for young and future astronauts in the summer of 2015. Thousands of children are set to meet at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, as well as the U.S. Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama. They will be educated on the qualifications of becoming an astronaut as well as the various activities that spacemen are involved, such as planning and executing a space mission. The kids will be taught how to construct and launch model rockets, using PVC pipes and paper tubes. They will also try using a microgravity simulator and a full-size mock-up space shuttle.

"Each activity is planned to bring out team-building and problem-solving skills among children. It is about allowing their natural curiosity to run its course and sowing the seeds that might eventually lead them into space," NASA shared.

Kerri Lubeski, chief educator of Camp KSC, said that the young children believe that they can be future astronauts. She added that it was vital to maintain a current programme as space operations in America are transitioning towards the private sector. The class in mid-July consisted of 170 individuals, from 7 to 16 years old. More than half of the group were girls. Retired NASA astronaut Fred Gregory, gave out graduation certificates to campers on July 24.

The Guardian reported that NASA is currently focusing on the development of the Space Launch System (SLS), which will be the biggest rocket ever built, capable of deep-space exploration. The plan is to have a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s. The first unmanned SLS flight is scheduled no later than November 2018.

Lubeski said that they are trying to focus on the current activities of NASA, which includes the New Horizons and Pluto, Mars and going beyond the orbit of Earth.

TattianaSelbach, 11, from Cumming, Georgia, said in the same Guardian report, “The future is on Mars, and I want to be the first person on the spaceship to go there. I’m really into space and exploring and it’s something I can’t wait to be doing.”

Although there is a long way to go before some of the kids actually get to work in space, NASA will be available when the best candidates are ready.