You can walk on Mars, astronaut tells kids

[Guest Glenn]

Source: The Australian

 

Louise Perry

 

July 08, 2005

 

THERE is a child sitting in a classroom somewhere in the world today who will be the first person to walk on Mars. They just don't know it yet.

 

Armed with this message, NASA astronaut Pamela Melroy got the full attention of hundreds of children in Melbourne yesterday, where she spoke to them about science, maths, space travel and shaking off the geek label. "Maths and science in the US, Australia and other major countries is in decline," Colonel Melroy said.

 

"The teachers are less qualified, and on top of that, we have the media giving young people the impression that doing maths and science is geeky, that you are socially inept, the mad professor."

 

Colonel Melroy, who has piloted two space flights to the international space station, said she wanted to re-enthuse the younger generations about space exploration. "I'm here to explain to them that science and maths is about discovery and exploration, and that when we get to Mars, we are going to need all sorts of different specialists," she said.

 

"We hope to be sending people to Mars within 20 years and that means that someone like me is going to be too old to pass their medical and get up there, so there is someone out there, between the age of five and 25, who is going to be the first person to walk on Mars. We just might need to inspire them."

 

Children and parents alike watched in a packed theatre yesterday as Colonel Melroy showed them video footage of her time in space, held up "space food" for them to see and regaled them with stories of sponge baths in zero gravity.

 

Colonel Melroy said she often found that children had never considered being an astronaut because it was still seen as "surreal".

 

"I always get kids saying to me, 'Oh, I never thought I could be an astronaut'. While it is part of the daily culture now - everybody knows that there are astronauts and cosmonauts going to space - but it still seems very glamorous and unattainable," she said.

 

"I think to see someone like me, a human being, standing in front of them, that makes it real."

 

In Australia for the fifth Australian Space Science Conference held at RMIT University, Colonel Melroy said while she, as a young girl, had been inspired by watching the moon landing in 1969, space exploration was now about a lot more than "a man in a suit on the moon. Now we need to inspire them about actually doing science in space."

 

Colonel Melroy, 44, piloted a space flight in 2000 and another in 2002. She was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1994 when she was a US Air Force pilot.