From Essays to NASA: My Journey with Higher Orbits
Initially, I heard about the idea of this program through some of the very last of the emails that were sent out by Higher Orbits. At the time, my cousins from Australia were visiting, and they found out about it and encouraged me to sign up so I could have an excuse to visit them, and I agreed, honestly not expecting to get chosen and thought it would be fun to write out some essays and reconnect with one of my other friends from Higher Orbits.
Now, here’s the surprising part– I somehow ultimately ended up getting chosen, despite dozens of other applicants vying for the same opportunity I was going for!
When the chosen applicants were announced, I was out on a trip for a friend’s birthday party, and my mum came in and had us all gather to watch the video. While they were announcing the chosen candidates, I got more and more disappointed because every person they had announced was not me, until they finally got to my name. I ended up screaming at eleven p.m. at night.
I began coming to Higher Orbits when I was twelve years old. They host a ‘Go For Launch!’ program each year over at NASA, which is just about fifteen minutes away from my house, so it was perfect. I went two years in a row with my other friend and each time made wonderful friends I still keep in contact with. The first year, I ended up being placed on a team with two other people, and we were called the ‘Diamond Hornets’ due to our shared love of horror games and stories. Our experiment was ‘Could moths and butterflies survive in zero gravity?’. We planned to use this information to see if we could successfully pollinate throughout the ISS. The second year, our team was called ‘Team Name Here’. That year, our project was on bioluminescent mushrooms and whether or not they could bloom in space, thus presenting astronauts with the opportunity to conserve power by using mushrooms for lighting.
Though we didn’t win either year, I’m determined to keep learning and growing with Higher Orbits. This opportunity is another step toward my future, and I’m incredibly grateful for it. I’m especially excited to meet people from other countries who share the same passion for science that I do.
Written by Stellar Student: Abigail Asinas
