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GHS Student Takes Part in Mock Mars Mission with NASA

Katrina Asher, a rising senior at Grafton High School, has had a truly out-of-this world summer. She spent a week at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston where she planned a simulated mission to Mars and experienced life as an engineer and scientist.

NASA sponsored the trip as part of the Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars project, or WISH. The WISH program encourages young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees and exposes them to the real-world applications of STEM careers at NASA. Beginning in March, participants worked on interactive, online projects focused on space exploration. The projects culminated with the selection of students invited to the NASA on-site event.

While in Houston, the young women worked in teams with female NASA mentors to develop mission plans for launching to Mars, living and working there, and integrating the many components necessary for a successful planetary mission. They worked within the confines of a fictitious budget and built several small mockups of vehicles to demonstrate a successful launch and landing of the Mars spacecraft.

“We learned how to work together as a team, planning a long range space mission on a budget. We got to work with robotics and talk with some famous people from the U.S. manned space program including Mr. Kraft and Joe Acaba. Mr. Kraft was a central figure in the safe return of Apollo 13 and Historic Mission Control is named for him. Joe Acaba is an astronaut on the International Space Station. It was a great week that I hope more young scholars will have a chance to experience,” said Asher.

Asher was one of eighty-four female high school students from across the country selected to participate in the pilot program. For more information about WISH, visit: http://go.usa.gov/dsP.