Summer at space camp, future in space

It will be the trip of a lifetime and could lead to a future career in space. 

Tess Mix is a fifth grader at Butterfield Elementary School, but she already has her sights set on the stars. After a little online research by mom and dad, the 11-year-old Maricopan is getting ready to spend a week at Space Camp, hosted by NASA at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. 

Tess says she is looking forward to going into the anti-gravity room, conducting a mock space mission with other students and learning about operations on board an actual space shuttle. But her favorite part of the trip will be meeting a few of her idols.

“At the beginning of space camp we’re gonna have breakfast with an astronaut, and then at the end we’re gonna get a certificate from an astronaut that went up into space,” Tess said.

Tess’s space dreams are anything but out of reach. She is in the gifted program at school, and mom, Jennifer, says Tess takes after her dad, who is an engineer. Math is her favorite subject.

“She’s an extraordinary student,” says her teacher, Jarrod Goss. “She’s driven. She thrives on challenges. To have 25 students of her would be amazing.”

Goss wrote a letter of recommendation for Tess when she applied for a camp scholarship at the beginning of the school year. It was an award not easily won. Tess also had to submit a mock science fair project, create a patch for herself and write an essay about which astronaut she thinks is most like her. Tess wrote about the first woman in space, Sally Ride. Tess says she sees similarities because she is the first of four siblings.

While the scholarship will help with $200 of camp costs, the family will need another $550 for the week, plus travel expenses. Tess is hoping to raise some of that money herself through fundraisers. You can look for her at the Salsa Festival selling suckers.

She may be working toward her summer trip right now, but Tess also has her sights set far into the future. If she were to become an astronaut, Tess says she would go to the moon to see the moon dust and what the other astronauts left before her. 

Goss says his star student can do anything she puts her mind to. “Her passion right now is math and science. If NASA’s her passion, I could see that because it’s a great combination of math and science. She’s always thinking outside the box.”

Photo by Kim Shepard