Georgia Tech’s Mars Hopefuls Looking Forward to NASA Launch
NASA is planning to launch a new spacecraft tomorrow morning. It will be the first test flight for Orion, a vehicle that will eventually help humans get to Mars. That’s exciting for Georgia Tech aerospace engineering students, some of whom could be among the first to set foot on the red planet.
Jimmy Williams, a senior at Tech, says he has a “crazy dream” to ride on Orion someday.
“I would love to be Jimmy Williams, first man on Mars,” he says. “That would be a great honor.”
This is not actually outside the realm of possibility. NASA hopes to send humans to Mars in the next couple decades. That’s what makes the Orion test flight important.
Williams says his interest is both in exploration, and in having a cosmic back-up plan.
“It’s a good place for us as humanity to try to make another home,” he says. “So that we have a kind of failsafe.”
The launch is also symbolic, says Tech physics student Madeline Lazar. She says private companies have helped fill the gap, but she’s glad to see NASA doing this work.
“I find it quite relieving that we are getting back on track to sending manned-missions into space,” she says.
Orion is intended to eventually ferry humans into space, where they would then board another ship that would take them the rest of the way. The trip to Mars would take eight or nine months. And Williams says, at least at this point, he’d be OK with a one-way ticket.
“I’ve always had a desire to explore. And I feel like space is the last frontier for that. So I feel like it’s kind of a calling of mine.”
Orion is scheduled to blast off for its four-hour test flight at 7:05 a.m. EST Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
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