HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Remember being 12-years old? What were your goals? What was your day-to-day schedule like? What were things that kept you up at night?
Your answers are probably very different than Caleb Anderson's.
Caleb is a 12-year-old who graduated high school this past year with two years worth of college credits. He's now enrolled as a full-time student at Georgia Tech. Caleb says, "I got into high school when I was 10. I was registered as a homeschool student. I did high school and college at the same time. Because a college semester counts as two high school semesters, I was able to do high school in two years. and I just recently graduated."
Caleb's strength in academia has landed him in Huntsville at Space Camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. He explains, "This was actually one of my graduation gifts. I was super excited. This is something I wanted to do for years. This is amazing. This a world-renowned program. I'm very excited to come to a place like this."
Another thing that separates Caleb from most 12-year-olds what attracts him to space. It's not being an astronaut. He says, "I want to be an aerospace engineer. I don't want to necessarily go up into space. Mars seems like a one-way trip. I'm not really suited for that. I do want to help people get to space. I want to help the advancement of the human race. I don't want to be one of the big people like Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin. I do want to be one of those people that helps these people get to space. The people in the front seat that's driving...I want to have these people's lives in my hands."
And in case you're curious how important Caleb thinks space travel is, he has this answer: "I think we're too confined to earth. We think this is the only place for us. We might go to mars. We have to travel. We're suffering from overpopulation. We're suffering from loss of natural resources. I think space travel is one of the most important things we can do right now."