This teenage girl is training to go to Mars and it’s absolutely amazing

There has been a lot of chatter about the mystery of space travel lately, and lo and behold 15-year-old Alyssa Carson plans to go to Mars…literally. Okay, we know that NASA has a plan to send humans there, and that President Obama said that Mars trips are not far off, but it’s probably fair to say that most teenagers aren’t contemplating such a complex excursion just yet. Carson from Baton Rouge is the real deal though.

She’s committed on going into space, being an astronaut, and being the first person to set foot on Mars — even if it means never returning to Earth.

Yeah, this kid is dedicated. Carson has been to NASA Space Camp, she’s got her rocket license (before her drivers permit!), attended shuttle launches and she’s attending the Advanced PoSSUM Academy which prepares high school grads for the extremity of space flight.

Here’s what Carson told Uproxx about what she’ll be doing at PoSSUM.

"[Doing] different kinds of real astronaut simulations such as using the zero G plane, flying a plane sideways, upside down. I’ll also be learning more about space suits and hypoxia — where they start taking a little bit of oxygen away from you so you know the symptoms."

Damn, girl! We are beyond impressed. So what’s the plan, you ask?

Carson is looking to study science at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., then get her Masters in space engineering at the International Space University in France, then study astrobiology at MIT, then walk on Mars by the year 2033 (when apparently Mars will be closer to Earth than it’s been in thousands of years). You know, NBD.

You can learn more about Alyssa and her intense travel plans in this clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ychKZIG8ms?feature=oembed

"Even though there are a lot of risks in going to Mars, I believe that the rewards are so much greater. Yeah, space is a dangerous place, and and 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."

Supporting you all the way, Alyssa!