The teenager who prepares to live on Mars in 2033

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19/07/2018

The teenager who prepares to live on Mars in 2033

There are no scientific documents that reflect how Christopher Columbus' father felt when his son sailed for the West Indies. Nor of the emotions that awakened in his parents Marco Polo's decision to cross all of Asia to reach China. We suppose, that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when both explorers set out on such dangerous journeys, parental protection with respect to the children would be quite different from what any middle-class boy or girl is accustomed to today. But had these documents existed, Alyssa Carson's father would be the most appropriate to understand that mixture of fear, loss and pride that fills the heart of a mother or father when they see that their children fly too far from the nest. Farther even than anyone has ever done before. Alyssa, who lives in Louisiana and has not yet finished high school, is not thinking of going to study in Europe or volunteering to help in any African country. Your dream is much greater. He wants to travel the tens of millions of kilometers that separate Mars and Earth. And she wants to be the first to do it, even though she can never return to tell the trip to her people firsthand.

His is an old obsession (everything old that can turn out to be something in a 17-year-old adolescent), since it is clear that he will be an astronaut since he was three, when he saw on television that his favorite animated characters flew to Mars. Since then, all his energies have been set to become the first human being to step on the Red Planet. Her father, Brett Carson, has assumed that she will leave sometime, probably by the year 2030, and is eager to enjoy the time they have left: "I will do everything in my power. I will leave everything else, I will do everything with and for her, to be able to spend time together before she leaves, "he assures with a mixture of pride and resignation. In recent years he has kept his word, allowing Alyssa to participate in the training camps of NASA, where he has received congratulations from the instructors. Unlike Marco Polo's father, Brett has the consolation that he can communicate with his daughter even when she is on another planet. Alyssa has been trained in a connected world. Her vocation (and herself) are the result of new technologies: the constant presence of the Internet in her training and in her leisure, artificial intelligence or robotics (a discipline she is also studying).

Alyssa is aware that his is an extraordinary story - "my friends think I'm a little crazy", she jokes - but she is absolutely convinced that she will achieve her goal. At the moment she has become a small celebrity for her perseverance, appearing in many media and participating as a speaker in numerous events. If Elon Musk does not come forward, Alyssa will have to wait a few years to be the first to step on Mars - NASA plans to send her first manned flight to the planet around 2030 -. In his case, as often happens with pioneers, imagination travels even faster than technology.

With the series "Connected Families" we want to know what happens when technology is integrated into the home. Investigate how it affects the rhythm of studies, leisure, work, culture ... But above all how it modifies human relationships and what to do to achieve a natural interaction between all members of the family and machines.