By Rhonda Bartle

Come in Houston

Imagine being asked to design a moon base to support the first manned mission to Mars. How big should it be? How long should it take to build? How much should it cost? What will be the dangers?

These are all questions New Plymouth's Lee Wilson (16) needed to answer during his time at the International Space School (ISS) in Houston, Texas, this year.

For two and a half remarkable weeks during July and August 2005, Lee proudly joined 35 other students from all around the world at the University of Houston and the NASA Lyndon B. Johnston Space Center.

At NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration,USA) he walked the walk and talked the talk of an astronaut, while attending workshops and seminars held by some of the world's leading scientific minds.

Interesting orders

Along with other students on the space aged course, he became part of a colour-coded team.

His job, as a member of Yellow Moon Base (Mission Headquarters) Team, was to help design everything that would be needed to support a Lunar Base on the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars.

This included fuel production, landing facilities, launch facilities, mining, power generation, tank farms and quarantine requirements.

Lee seriously enjoyed getting his mind around these things. Perhaps his love of Science Fiction helped.

Blame it on the books

Science fiction books may have fuelled his fire for spaced-out things, because as Lee says, "I do read a lot of sci fi novels."

"There are two types: hard sci fi and soft sci fi," Lee explains. "Soft sci fi is where anything is possible. Hard sci fi, well, there are theories and machinery that you can't prove or disprove it would work."

What he really likes, he says, are exploring the fresh ideas that come with the genre, especially imaginative new ways of travelling through space.

His favourite books are by a relatively unknown British author called Neal Asher, who he says he stumbled on 'just by chance.'

"One of the best things about science fiction is being able to experience different societies of the future," he says.

Cosmic concepts: Yellow Team uses the blackboard to work out solutions to problems at the conceptual stage of their project.

A launch pad for space nuts

The (ISS) began in 1994 as an introduction to the space industry for interested students.

Often, it becomes a launch pad for students, who go on to choose academic paths to suit a space career.

The number of those accepted has risen steadily over the years, from three students from one country in the first year, to 36 students from 20 countries in 2005.

From New Plymouth to NASA

So how did a boy from New Plymouth Boys' High School get accepted for space school?

Lee explains: "A teacher at New Plymouth Boys' High had a connection with the people at NASA so that's how we got involved."

New Zealand is now included in the project, with two students attending the school each year. Amazingly, both come from New Plymouth.

This year Lee travelled with Kate Goddard, another space cadet from New Plymouth Girls' High School.

Ground control to Major Tom

Lee was thrilled to be able to witness the space industry first hand. Back home, his eyes light up when he talks about what he saw.

"They don't actually have a zero G (zero gravity) facility there but they have a massive swimming pool, 12m deep and a couple of rugby fields long, which has a mock up of an entire space station at the bottom of it.

"With the help of that pool, they can give astronauts the experience of zero G. And then there's the Vomit Comet, a long plane basically, that goes to quite a height and starts falling, and for about 30 seconds people experience zero G."

Though he was unable to have a go on it, he says, "If they'd said I could, I would have jumped at it!"

Watching Discovery lift off

By sheer good luck and brilliant timing, Lee was able to watch the space shuttle Discovery launched while he was there.

"Ours was the first space school to coincide with a real mission," Lee says. "We watched it on a big screen at the space centre."

Though Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Miami, Houston's NASA engineers took over the controls immediately the shuttle was in the air.

"Lift off of space shuttle Discovery, beginning America's new journey to the moon, Mars and beyond," said George Diller, the voice of shuttle launch control.

When everyone at NASA cheered, so did Lee Wilson, though as he points out, "I don't think any of us expected things would go wrong."

The day Lee flew home to New Zealand, Discovery landed safely again. It was NASA's first shuttle flight since the 2003 disaster when Columbia disintegrated during re-entry.

Mission to Mars: Inside a darkened control room, Lee and the team take part in a simulation of a manned mission to Mars

Passion fuelled by a science project

Lee believes his personal journey to the NASA facility probably began at least five years ago at Highlands Intermediate School when an innovative project came second at the Methanex Science and Technology Fair.

"I did this project about the moon's gravity. I kept thinking - if it can pull the tides up, why can't it pull us up? Then I thought, 'Maybe it does!'

He set about finding a way to prove his theory. "I found that we are being pulled up very slightly. I learned this by taking standard weights, and during the different tidal times - it was actually a King tide at the time, the biggest of the year  - measuring them on a spring balance and seeing how differently the weight changed depending on where the moon was at the time."

And the result? "It does pull us up a very small amount."

At school in America

But he says his trip into the realms of space possibly goes back even further, to when he and his family lived in America for 18 months, after his father went there for work.

Lee, aged eight, found the American education system more demanding that the one at home.

"At school they pushed us very hard and it would be the norm to have homework last till ten o'clock at night. We were analysing Time magazine articles and things like that.

"When I came back to a not-so-pressed New Zealand primary school, I began to look for other things that I found really interesting. Science was one of them."

A rich and rewarding experience

Today, Lee relishes his experience at NASA, describing it as extremely rich, fulfilling and rewarding. "The more work you put into it, the greater the rewards will be."

He says the host family he stayed with was 'fantastic,' and plans to stay in touch with the other students he met on the course.

"Yes, we're chatting and keeping our friendship up."

And it has definitely confirmed his career path. Not that he wants to be an astronaut  - you understand - he'd like to be a space engineer.

 "I'll probably study mechanical engineering and then do a course on aerospace engineering, which is what most of the people at NASA have done. I'd like to operate a small aerospace firm."

He smiles and says, "That would be my absolute dream."

Working hard to earn his place

Before being accepted for the trip to Texas, Lee had to complete twelve complex assignments and submit several detailed drawings, one of which was his own design for a working space station.

"On top is a power station which beams microwave energy down to earth, and on the bottom you have the space station itself, and between them is a long tether which exploits the earth's magnetic field, as a free lunch if you like, as a power source."

So, now that he's been there, done that, does he think his design would work?

"Yes," Lee says. "I believe it would."

Houston, we have lift off. You can almost hear it now.

Spaced-out assignments: some of the hard work that earned a trip to Texas