Caden Weaver

Lead Engineer

Department of Defense

Quest Quality: Fortitude 

My arms burned, the sweat blocked my vision, and the chalk caught in my throat. I’d only been climbing this rock wall for 5 minutes and already felt the urge to leave. But I hadn’t gone all this way just to quit. So I climbed, sweat glistening on my skin and arms growing heavier and heavier. I trekked on for another 5 minutes and felt another wave of doubt wash over me. All my energy, once dedicated to helping me continue had once again become the doubting of my ability. I leaned back. Ready to drop off the wall and finally relax. But I realized, why had I signed up for the camp if only to quit. There’d be no purpose. By the time I reached the top of the wall I was exhausted, but relieved. I put my mind and soul to the task and because of that, I’d been able to complete the climb.

Having great fortitude is a necessity for going to Mars. The crew needs to be able to keep going, through pain, through failure, through heartbreak. The ability to endure what’s happened. They need to have an intense drive to move ahead. To push forward. To never give up, is a quality that every crewmember must have.

Nikita Nautiyal

Medical and Health Officer

Diplomacy and Communications Officer

Quest Quality: Drive

“Try to lift the tennis ball from the ground using the racquet,” my dad says. As my cousin and I struggle, I think back to how my dad had shown us: leaning on one leg while extending to the reach the ball using little wrist movements meanwhile transferring the weight to his back leg to make the ball bounce toward him and allowing him to catch it. I carry on, extend, flick, pull, fail. Over and over I repeat the same steps I had seen my dad do, each attempt worse than the previous. “I got it, I got it” yells my cousin from the opposite side of the cement. Ugh, I think to myself as I continue with my fruitless efforts. Morning rolls around and I return to ball lifting endeavors. Each time more hope is lost; until it happened. I leaned toward the ball, my wrist whacking briskly while my left leg pushed towards the ground. The ball jumped into the air, my hand swung to grab it, success.

During our mission to Mars, our drive is what will carry us to new discoveries and better ways of life. Naturally, those who venture on this trip will need bravery and curiosity, but drive is having exactly that. Drive, in a way, trumps bravery; meaning, if we want something enough we will do anything to get it, even if it is dangerous. If we have drive we are also curious though; otherwise, why would we want it so badly?

Lily Du

Chief Operations Officer

Quest Quality: Perseverance

It was hard for me to read or pronounce a single word since my native language is Chinese. Back then, in kindergarten, when I was learning English, the teacher divided “English” into three portions, which were reading, listening and grammar. I remembered how my finger would stay on that one word, and nothing would come out of my mouth. But I thought that my parents gave me such a good opportunity,  so I worked extra hard on memorizing vocabularies and read more books. Starting from fourth-grade, I realized I have already achieved some of the goals that I have set for myself, so I kept trying. At the end of my fourth-grade year, my family decided to send me to America with my cousin. Now a few years later, here I am, still trying to reach my goals, knowing there are much more things for me to accomplish and there is much more knowledge for me to store in my head.

Perseverance would count as an essential quest quality for Mission to Mars. There will be up and downs in the experiment, and we will go through successes and fails in many situations. If we want to achieve the goal to go to Mars, we can’t stop trying, learning and experimenting. Perseverance would get rid of the difficulties and help you to reach the top of the mountain.

Sophia Samuels