 I first got interested in the idea of going to Mars when I was three years old. And lift on, lift on. She wants to be the first or one of the first to go to Mars. She's a regular kid with a dream that she's willing to pursue. Spaceflight is very risky business. You have to take it serious or you will die. If the option was to go to Mars and never come back, I would still want to go and be a part of the mission. When Alyssa was younger, I remember Alyssa coming to me and asking me, had human beings ever been to Mars? And I explained to her that we'd been to the moon, but not Mars, but it would be her generation to become the Mars generation and go to Mars. This would be something really cool. I mean, go into space and then land on other planets. Little did I know that I would be raising a child that I'm supporting to leave this planet. I do everything that every other normal kid does except on the side. I'm training to become an astronaut and go to Mars. Kids are always told you can do whatever you want to do. You can be whatever you want to be. Alyssa has heard that, but she has accepted that I'm going to have to work really, really hard to get to where I want to be. She's the youngest to ever graduate from Advanced Space Academy. She was the first person to complete all NASA's space camps in the world. Got her rocket license before getting her driver's permit. Currently I have my basic Superdiver certification and I'm working on my advance. She's doing the International Baccalaureate, so she's doing college level classes in 10th grade. Multilingual education, so she's taking her classes in four languages, English, French, Spanish, Chinese. She's got the right mental attitude. She's doing everything that she can physically here on Earth to prepare herself for that journey to Mars. I don't think there's anything specifically that kind of makes it easier for me or makes it something that others can't do. It's just something that I've kind of really focused myself on what I want to accomplish. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. Going to Mars is absolutely essential for continuing a human species as a whole. It is very important that we keep exploring because it has already been said that a single planet species will become extinct. Just going to Mars is that first baby step and showing people how we can move on from planet Earth, which is kind of like our little cradle now. We're destroying our own planet. If we don't continue to explore, we could end up not having a planet to live on. So even though there are a lot of risk in going to Mars, I believe that the rewards are so much greater. Yeah, space is a dangerous place. And yeah, there's so much that I'm giving up for it. But at the end of the day, there's so much good that can come from this mission. The big plans for Mars is eventually terraforming it. Change Mars to kind of become like another Earth, to have a second home for humans to live on. Let's checkmate. Booyah! There are companies that want to send one way and colonize Mars. And then there are people like NASA and ESA that are working together that want to have a return trip. So I still have to look at it as a father that I'll have my child for 20 more years and then I may not ever see her again. And that's hard. But for what she's wanting to do, I have to support her. I have to let her go. It's bigger than the two of us. We know that the next 20 years together is going to be important because we know for sure that those are 20 years that we can spend together. Obviously it's not the best thing to be telling your daughter to go and go on a mission to Mars and leave the planet, but I still know that he supports me anyway. Every time Alyssa talks about having to go to space and how she can't get married and how she can't have kids, it makes me sad because I'm saying, oh, she's going to leave me one day. But then I remember, we might as well live now and when the future comes we'll be able to accept it because we didn't waste time. There are a multitude of challenges to become an astronaut. You have to have the right mental attitude, you have the right health, you have to have the right skills. Last year we put out a call for the next cadre of astronauts. We had thousands apply and we're accepting less than 10. The biggest challenge for Alyssa is just trying to get everything done that she wants to have for her unique resume. Specifically for the Mars mission, I would say that they're even more precise about who they want for that mission. So thinking about all that motivates me to put in the hard work now that I know to build up kind of a good resume that helps me stand out from others when I do apply. The opportunity to be one of the youngest people that's ever ventured into space, to be a trailblazer, a pioneer, I think this is everything she's always wanted to do. She just recently was accepted to Possum Academy. She's the youngest person ever to be accepted to that program. Basically everyone who's ever gone to this program either has a college degree, either has a master's, either has a PhD or is working on any of those, so they're all a lot older than I am. What Possum Academy is, they are preparing people for space flight. I will actually be certified to go to space. I think it's really significant that Alyssa is a girl who has this huge dream to make it to Mars. She is someone that girls can look up to and say, hey, look at what she did. Look at what this girl did who was the same as me once. So it is important to inspire kids and also adults. You can't let anyone take your dreams away from you. No matter how crazy it might sound, follow that through and never give up on your dream. The 2033 mission that they always talk to us about, that's when the sun is going to have the least amount of radiation going. That's when Mars is going to be the closest that it's been in thousands of years. That's when they'll have the technology perfected. Yes, if she was a few years older, a few years younger, it may not be working out, but the way doors have opened for her, it is definitely destiny working its hand that this kid is meant to go to Mars. Mars will be the greatest adventure ever.