Becoming The Youngest Person in Space

I am 17 years old and will start my senior year of high school in the fall. Like most kids, space has always been something that excited and amazed me. Even as a young child, I would stare up at the stars, wondering what was out there and how I could find it.

Unfortunately, growing up in my generation I began to face the reality that being an astronaut was not exactly a realistic career choice. People told me that it was almost impossible to work for NASA and that the space program had almost no budget so what was the point in trying anyways. This was really hard for me to take in, but I moved on and began to accept the reality that I would just have to become a doctor or lawyer when I grew up.

However, after an incredibly unexpected turn of events last year, my dream of going to space was reignited, when I was able to create a position for myself at XCOR Aerospace, a commercial space company based out of Mojave, California.

The biggest perk of working for XCOR is that every employee gets a free trip into suborbital space aboard our spacecraft, Lynx. When I found this out, I could not have been more excited: since Lynx is set to start flying within the year, that would mean that I would become the youngest person ever to visit space!

As XCOR’s Communication and Youth Outreach Associate, I have taken this excitement with me and spoken to over a thousand students and teachers about the possibilities of commercial space exploration and how they all can get involved. I have developed a presentation and classroom materials, and I have seen how inspired kids are by space and all that it holds.

Through all of this, I have thought a lot about what exploration really means to me.

Some people dismiss XCOR because we are only going to suborbital space, and that is somehow unimportant in the grand scheme of exploration since we have already gone to the Moon as a species. However, what that notion fails to take into account is that each flight will be a new experience and chance to explore for each individual. Not only will we be conducting research that has never done before, but we will also be bringing space, the most extreme environment we know of, and its beauty to thousands of people, while inspiring millions more. The commercial space market as a whole is pushing the limits of how we explore and making our universe more accessible to everyone in the process.

I want to go to space not because it will be a first for humanity but because I will get to expand the boundaries of what I have experienced and share that knowledge with as many students as I can. I truly hope that my record of being the youngest person in space does not stand for long and that space becomes something accessible for everybody on the planet, especially kids. The future of exploration relies on the youth of today. We have as a whole become more interested in looking at our phones than looking up at the sky or down into the ocean, but this can be changed. It is our job as individuals, as communities, and as a society to reignite a passion for exploration and make it exciting for future generations once again.

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Contributed by Zach Oschin Student Explorer Blue Marble Exploration Los Angeles, CA, USA

Student Explorer: Rebecca Ziegler

As a Blue Marble Exploration Student Explorer, Rebecca combines her lifelong enthusiasm for “the big blue” with the formal study of the world beneath the surface.

Currently a student at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo, Rebecca is working towards degrees in Marine Science and Communications. A PADI-certified Divemaster and AAUS Scientific Diver, Rebecca works as a research assistant and field-lab technician in the Marine Science department. Most recently she participated in a shark tagging field course and became a responder for stranded sea turtles on the Big Island. While not in the water, Rebecca leads fellow students on outdoor adventures around the island through her university’s student recreation program.

While in high school, Rebecca served as a Youth Ambassador for Scott Cassell’s Undersea Voyager Project, participating in a submersible pilot training program and learning new ways to explore the ocean. In 2011 her underwater footage of a baby Gray Whale taken while SCUBA diving in Laguna Beach, CA quickly went viral and was shown on media outlets around the country, launching Rebecca into the world of underwater filming and photography. This experience inspired her to start an online campaign to save the Aquarius Reef Base, resulting in a chance to dive to the base in person! Rebecca continues to use her passion for exploration to inspire her peers to get excited and take action to conserve the ocean.

Follow Rebecca's adventures on Twitter @BectheDiver or visit her website!


Getting to Know Rebecca Ziegler

1. Why do you explore? How are you continually inspired to explore?
   
   Ever since I was young my imagination has run rampant with adventures in unknown places, always wanting to see new things and experience the world. Besides watching shows or movies about far-off places, listening to the stories from people I meet from other countries keeps me driven to explore beyond my backyard. I have always loved being around the ocean, when it came time to pick a career, it seemed like a no brainer! The ocean is so vast, with so little of it explored and so much still to learn, I have jumped at any chance to get my feet wet.
   
   
2. Is there one expedition in your future towards which you are continuously striving?
   
   South Africa is currently on the top of my radar for future expeditions. I am hoping to do both a wildlife filmmaking program and a great white shark research internship there this coming summer. This will be the first time I will be in a new country, across the world by myself, and I can’t wait!
   
   
3. Do you have one piece of advice for other students who dream of exploring the ocean?
   
   My advice would be to challenge yourself to try something new whenever you can. Whether it be a new sport, hobby or even going on a club event, you never know who you will meet along the way, or what you will learn! I have learned the only things I have ever regretted are things I didn’t do. Get involved with any local dive clubs, aquariums, or beach cleanups. Stay updated on the latest in the underwater world and if your ocean hero is making a stop near your hometown for a conference- go see them! Introduce yourself, shake their hand, and don’t be shy. Step out of your comfort zone, dare to dream, and you might discover something new.
   
   
4. Who are your role models in exploration and why do they inspire you?
   
   My role models in exploration range from Her Deepness, Sylvia Earle, to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his family’s legacy of ocean exploration. Their pioneering feats in the underwater world feed my hunger for pursuing my own adventures. But more personally my family, friends, and colleagues inspire me to dream, discover and explore the world around me.

Summer of Shark Tagging:Field Notes from a Student Explorer

A normal week of the “Natural History of Sharks and Rays” class I took this summer at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo consisted of reading five scientific articles, a dissection in lab, and Friday nights out in the field tagging sharks. Those Friday nights were probably the most fun and rewarding I have had in school. We would spend a good four to five--and on one night even seven--hours baiting and tagging sharks in Hilo Bay.

We operated off two boats, the first being an 18-foot Larson fishing boat (the “base”) and the other a smaller 15-foot rigid inflatable (the tender). We measured the length, took a tissue sample, and tagged the sharks and rays on the inflatable as it is easier to manage and still keep the sharks in the water during the procedures. On a slow night we only had one juvenile oceanic blacktip shark, while on our busiest night we couldn’t check the lines fast enough!

Three of our catches stick out in my memory.

The first was the brown stingray that was about the size, if not larger, than a dining table! I have never seen a wild stingray that large, but she was a beauty!

The second catch I remember was the female sandbar shark that bit the boat. Just as we had her all calmed down (or so we thought) and ready to measure her length, she turned and bit the boat. When a shark bites an inflatable boat you can’t just yank it off unless you want to lose a chunk of the vessel. All you can do is wait until it decides to let go. After a few tense few minutes of listening to the air seep out, she tried to reposition her hold, and we were able to keep her from latching on again. Once the whole class stopped laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing, some duct tape was found and a basic patch was made.

My third memorable moment was one of our last outings. I was helping set the trotline out, when I felt a tug ... small, but definitely something there. My professor was skeptical, since the line wasn’t completely out and I was claiming we had a shark on the line. What felt like minutes ticked by as I pulled the line in. I was starting to second-guess myself, when I felt a definite tug and saw a small wriggling body slowly making its way to the surface. Circling just below the surface was the smallest baby oceanic blacktip I had ever seen. He was so young that the umbilical scar was still open! He was a little fighter, too. Instead of bringing him back to the rest of the class waiting on the Larson, we decided the less traumatic procedure would be to just work on him right there. One, two, three, and he was off, swimming away enthusiastically. We reset the line and made our way back to the rest of the class, still beaming from our encounter with the little guy we just released.

The sharks and rays class was the most reading-, studying-, and writing-intensive class I have ever taken, but also the most rewarding. For six weeks I was able to work with sharks, up close and personal. I learned more than I could have ever imagined, and I want to learn more. My "Summer of the Shark" was a memorable one for sure!

Follow Rebecca's adventures on Twitter @BectheDiver or visit her website!

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Contributed by Rebecca Ziegler Student Explorer Blue Marble Exploration Hilo, HI USA