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[Music]
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hi my name is Alyssa Carson I am a white
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woman with dark brown hair um wearing a
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Blue flight suit that looks kind of like
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a pilot suit with a patch with my name
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on it and I am 22 years old from Baton
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Rouge Louisiana my favorite food would
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probably be crawfish since I'm from
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Louisiana but I'm also a really big
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Sushi person as
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well a fun fact about me is that I
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played competitive soccer for 10
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years an inspirational quote I think
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that I really try to embrace in my
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day-to-day life is to never let anyone
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Take Your Dreams Away from you just
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because it's hard to have big dreams and
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all the outside noise noise on yourself
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so it's really important to remember
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that if you want it you can accomplish
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it without all that other noise kind of
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preventing you from getting
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there so ever since I was a little girl
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I've always been interested in space and
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the idea of working in the space
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industry so I've been getting involved
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with any and all citizen science
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research or doing any other programs to
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begin building a resume to one day apply
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so I went to college and graduated with
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um a degree in astrobiology and now I'm
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also currently working on a PhD in space
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and planetary science to be involved
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with some of the scientific research
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that happens for some of the future
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lunar and also Mars missions my main
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focus is dealing with life so I study
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bacteria and see if we could find life
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elsewhere potentially on Mars we're
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trying to figure it out so that is my
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realm of science within the space
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industry
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so I was interested in space when I was
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really young I remember going and asking
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my dad all these questions like have
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people been to space before you know is
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space even real and so I kind of had all
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these just goofy questions but no one in
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my family had any sort of space or
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science background and then we tried to
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pinpoint it to like one moment that
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actually sparked all these questions cuz
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it was very bizarre cuz we never really
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talked about space in the house but
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really our best guess is that it could
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have been anep episod of the backyard
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against which was a cartoon that was on
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Nickelodeon when I was a kid they had a
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mission to Mars episode where they
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pretended to travel to Mars and do
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research and stuff so that's really our
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best guess as to what sparked some of
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those questions but to be honest we
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don't know exactly but it was perhaps
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the backy
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Guardians the first steps I really took
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was going to my local library getting
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books and posters and videos and all
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this information about space just
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because like I said no one in my family
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really had any background in space and
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didn't really have anything to teach me
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and so I started going to those sort of
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resources um you know I started asking
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my teachers you know to really help my
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interest in math and science and asking
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if they had anything else to kind of
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help um me learn a little bit but I was
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always trying to do different Hands-On
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activities cuz I know I likeed space but
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I had no idea what within space I liked
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um you know I could be an engineer a
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scientist I could um you know do any
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wave of spe specific work within space
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and so I was really trying to figure out
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what I liked the most so growing up I
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was all sorts of Hands-On I joined like
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the little robotics team at my school
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just to see if I would like it just to
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see if that would be an Avenue I always
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had space in the back of my head but I
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still tried all these different Avenues
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just to see okay what do I like the most
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cuz I really didn't know and I couldn't
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really tell without physically doing it
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you know I was a very Hands-On kid and
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so I was always just dipping my toe in
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all these different prod projects
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because I was really trying to figure
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out what I was most interested in and by
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doing that I fell into you know a
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citizen science research organization um
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called IAS and I still work with them
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today which that was also really awesome
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because I was able to learn different
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areas of space but also go out and do
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research with them and that was working
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with space suits or microgravity flights
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and able to really get a feel of the
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different areas of space that I would be
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most interested in and eventually found
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my way into astrobiology and found out
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about it through someone that I met at a
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panel and that has been that and I've
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loved it pretty much ever since and
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continued to work on my direct research
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Focus actually within astrobiology so
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you're always learning and figuring
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something out about yourself and so I
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would definitely say that's what I did
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and I think that's kind of one of the
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best things to do is just try figure out
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what you like and if you don't like it
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switch to the next and keep going down
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that that
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road I think some of my main motivations
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of one kind of always been my passion
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for space and it's always been very
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interesting cuz I liked space when I was
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younger but the more I learned about
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space the more I became even more
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passionate about it I really just wanted
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to give back to the space industry the
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more I was able to learn you know what
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the space industry gives us the amount
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of technology and knowledge and you know
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it's really common to think of space as
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us just like sing things out into space
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and then we never see it again but
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really everything that we do up there
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comes back down to earth and helps
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everything here on Earth and so the more
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I was able to learn about it I really
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just wanted to contribute to that in
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some way and so that's why I was always
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trying to figure out what I would be
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best in cuz I wanted to find that one
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thing that I'd be really good in that
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would help contribute the most um so
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that's really been my biggest motivation
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and also just continuing to teach kids
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about some of these you know
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non-traditional jobs that there are in
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the world you know we think of space
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always as math and science jobs where
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psychology is huge in the space industry
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or the people that have to figure out
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how we send food to space or designing
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space suits um you know all these
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different jobs aren't as math or science
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focused and so I think it's really
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important that we kind of break down
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some of these really complicated jobs
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because they seem intimidating and then
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it seems like too much work or too hard
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to go into them but really they're
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possible for anyone who has that
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interest and so it's important for them
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to know that they can get
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there so really the next steps for my
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journey is continuing with school so I
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am starting my PhD program this fall um
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so it will be a little bit of a lengthy
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journey to get the uh PhD but it's
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probably about uh 5 years working on my
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research and writing a dissertation and
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everything but that's really my next few
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steps um so primarily working on that my
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research Focus will be um actually
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testing a species of bacteria called
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methanogens um and putting them through
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different stressors that are similar to
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the conditions on Mars and seeing how
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they react to really see if it's
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possible that they could be living there
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so that'll kind of be my realm for the
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next little while but you know after
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that it's really just kind of waiting
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for the next astronaut selection process
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to open up I would love to apply in the
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next selection process and then go from
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there um and eventually work research is
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really my big interest at the moment so
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even after the PHD program I would
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likely just work for a space Company
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still doing research or working and
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doing lab work
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I think within space um there has been a
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push for you know the last few years
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getting more women involved in the space
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industry um you know typically if you
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look at some of the more recent
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astronaut selection processes they've
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been more half women half male so that's
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been really good to see but you know one
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of the biggest factors about the space
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industry is that we really only see you
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know like the astronauts that go to
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space or some of these you know people
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that um are televised and it's so
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interesting because it takes tens of
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thousands of people to send that one
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astronaut into space and it's really
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important that we're creating that
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diversity and um inclusion of women
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across all those jobs because just
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because there's a female astronaut but
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you know it was 90% males working on the
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rocket and the spacit and and all the
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other components um I don't think that's
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necessarily an entire success and so I
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think it's really important that we
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continue to not only you know boast
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about some of these astronaut figures
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but also just all the stem jobs that are
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involved and you know it's been really
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amazing to see more and more women
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getting involved and working in these
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stem fields and I really hope it just
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continues to go in that direction and
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seeing more girls get interested in
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space and stem has been really exciting
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for me you know I love telling girls
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about all the different things they can
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do because again a lot of the time they
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don't really realize all the jobs that
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they could go into they maybe think you
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know it's just an engineer you know I
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was a young girl I didn't want to be an
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engineer either but I'm still working a
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stem job and so I can kind of see that
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perspective of we really think the space
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industry goes in One Direction when
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really it can go in all sorts of
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directions that you can really love so I
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love being able to teach that and also
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see other young girls get that interest
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and want to pursue their own dreams with
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them stem no matter what the the path
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may
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be yeah I think that kind of going back
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to uh you know Roots I was really just
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raised by my dad so it was just me and
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my dad was like the whole family and
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then we were just kind of like a tag
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team to do things together and I think
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that had a big impact you know I was
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doing things with him so I feel like I
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also grew up very quickly by being like
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an only child and being with my dad um
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and I think in that way I was super
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eager but I also got a lot of attention
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which I guess also helped um but it was
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really awesome to just kind of have the
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fact that my dad was supportive of my
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interest and my dreams and wanting to
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help support it in any way that he could
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even if he did not understand space at
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all because it took him a while to
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really pick up on some of the things but
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it was really really fun to kind of have
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that Bond though between the two of us
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where we could travel do things that
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were really interesting to me for space
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um and kind of have that flexibility to
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do that so um that really had a really
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big uh impact on going about my my dream
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and I definitely would not be where I am
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without his support and all his help in
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traveling with me and so so I think that
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made a big difference and then I think
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it also helped a lot with um me wanting
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to share a little bit of my story and
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share that to other uh young kids in
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whatever their you know situations may
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be and kind of help Inspire them that
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you know despite those situations
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figuring out ways or working out ways to
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um even the smallest things to start
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getting towards the towards those dreams
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that they may have even if it is just
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telling a teacher hey I'm interested in
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this or you know start communic ating
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some of those ideas because you really
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never know where the opportunities may
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come
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from so I have done a good bit of travel
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both um in speaking but also some of the
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different research campaigns I've done
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um some of the research stuff that we've
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done have been over in Iceland or up in
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Canada and so that's been really
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exciting especially to see kind of the
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space industry on a global scale is very
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very fascinating um it is really
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interesting to see what different space
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agencies are doing in different
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countries um or different projects
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different companies what they're working
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on and I think space is something that
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really unifies us as people um you know
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it's something that we all can kind of
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have like a common goal for and I think
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that that is really really important um
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because we can look up at these big
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goals and kind of unify and so it's been
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really exciting to see some of the new
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projects within space really have um
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more of a global impact so that's been
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really cool and then also speaking as
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well I also love traveling and just
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speaking to different groups of people
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and also sharing some of the
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opportunities because a lot of times
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when people think space they only think
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NASA and I love being able to share with
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also kids in other countries what their
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own country has as far as resources for
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different space programs because they
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may not think of that because when we
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think space we think of NASA but there
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are loads of companies NASA has loads of
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contractors and other companies working
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under them so it's important to keep
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those in mind too and then also what
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they what's actually happening where
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they
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are
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I think I wish adults really had a
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perspective on how teenagers see the
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world or that or really just the change
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that there is in how teenagers see the
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world you know um I think a lot of the
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time as adults we can really just only
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see things from one perspective of how
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it was when they were younger and you
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know a lot of that comes with some of
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like the social media or how
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interconnected teenagers are now with
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the internet and those sorts of
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connection because it is really A Whole
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New World with that age of social media
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but there are a lot of benefits to it
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and so I think it's kind of hard to see
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both ways um you know I think one of the
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biggest benefits of you know today and
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for young kids today is that they can
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have access to see what some of these
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jobs look like I mean even just through
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social media they can see someone doing
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their dream job and seeing what they do
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on a day-to-day basis see how they do it
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really get a good idea of oh would I ALS
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also like to do that but then also see
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other types of jobs to see if those are
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more interesting and they can really get
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some of that inside perspective on some
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of these career paths or you know even
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reaching out to them I think that is
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insane that you know someone could see
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an engineer or a scientist or a
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researcher or anyone like that um
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posting on the internet ask them hey how
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did you get there do you have any
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resources or contacts for me and I think
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that's really huge that that connection
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is able to be made and so I think it's
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kind of encouraging some of that
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encouraging um the use of the internet
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in those positive ways because there is
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a lot that a lot of good that can come
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out of
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it
