Season 3, Episode 7, #AskAbby Space and Science Show: Homeschool Edition

Presented by TheMarsGeneration.org

KIDS EDITION: Can I Become an Astronaut?

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here so you don’t miss an episode!

In the 7th Episode of the #AskAbby Space and Science Show: Homeschool Edition, host Abby Harrison answers a question posed by parent Eleanor from Cornwall, England UK, who is asking a question on behalf of her 8-year-old son, Thomas, who dreams of going to space: What can Thomas do now to help with his goal (astronaut, one of the first on mission to Mars)?

In this episode, Abby speaks specifically to her younger fellow aspiring astronauts like Thomas! Abby shares how she started reaching towards the stars as a kid too (at only five-years-old) and what steps she took. We hope this video gives you ideas for how to jumpstart your own journey into the exciting world of space and science!

Transcription of KIDS EDITION: Can I Become an Astronaut?

ABBY

Hi everyone and welcome to #AskAbby: Homeschool Edition!

This is a new series of AskAbby meant to provide resources—as well as the all-important space puns and space jokes–to students who are now doing distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each episode will feature questions submitted by students from around the world.

This episode features a question from Eleanor and her 8-year-old son Thomas from England, and is focused on becoming an astronaut.

*INTRO GRAPHIC *

ABBY
The question is: What can 8-year-old Thomas do now to help with his goal of becoming an astronaut and maybe one of the first on a mission to Mars?

I really love this question and was excited when I got it because even as a kid, no matter how old or how young you are, there’s a lot that you can be doing to reach this dream.

For example, if you’re dreaming of being an astronaut like 8-year-old Thomas, you could be learning about space, astronomy, what astronauts currently do, all types of things. And really looking for what it is that you’re passionate about and what will help drive you towards achieving your goal and dream in the future.

Being an astronaut is really all about being a scientist. At its core, that’s what it is. Almost all astronauts are scientists in some way, and I’ll tell you they were scientists way before they became astronauts. So that’s another area that you can be focused on right now, apart from space, is what brand or type of science you’re really interested in. And some of the ways that you can do that is by exploring.

Explore by reading about it, by learning about different kinds of science through YouTube, or by going to local museums or doing virtual museum tours. Or even by doing your own fun science hands-on experiments at home. For a fun science experiment to do at home, check out my video below.

How you engage with space and science will be different for you and for every single person watching this. It might include things like what I did when I was younger. I was part of a lot of after school groups, like GEMS – Girls in Engineering, Math and Science. Or Science Bowl, where we all learned science together.

But I also really loved to learn about science on my own, whether it was through reading books or just going outside at night and learning about the night sky and about what was visible where I was. And the good news with that is that there are more resources now than there ever have been before where you can learn about science on your own.

So you can download apps that will help you stargaze, that will help you know what it is that you’re looking at and tell you all kinds of information about them. You can go on virtual tours of museums around the world. Really anything that you can imagine, you can probably find somewhere on the internet, and you can do all of it whether you’re staying at home or not.

Staying healthy is also really important to becoming an astronaut, and health doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s something that you have to build over your lifetime. So start now by getting involved in a sport, playing outside and making sure that you’re eating well, and that means eating lots of vegetables. “Lettuce” all eat our vegetables, as “corny” as it may sound. *ba-dum tss*

And finally it’s really important to do your best in school. Astronauts have to have a solid educational foundation and now is the time for you to start on that. So yes, doing your homework could get you to space.

Today we learned that no matter your age, you can always get started working towards your dream. It’s never too early. And I should know – I decided I wanted to become an astronaut when I was maybe four or five years old and have been working on it ever since then.

Science can be so fun and exciting, so Thomas and everyone else out there who’s watching this video: I’m really glad to hear that you’re ready to jump in and get involved. For even more detailed information on how to become an astronaut, go ahead and check out the AskAbby video titled How to Become an Astronaut.

Thanks so much for watching. To send me a question or a comment, you can go ahead and Tweet me using the hashtag #AskAbby, or through The Mars Generation website. 

And until next time, keep safe, keep healthy, and keep learning! So long fellow travelers of spaceship Earth.