Meet the Team
LOla Hall
Ship Captain
Quest Quality: Improvisation
I forgot my move. In the middle of the dance, I forgot my move. Oh gosh, I had been preparing for this show for months now and I blanked. My heart just stopped as my head went over the dance again and again, but I just couldn’t remember what came next. As panic flooded my mind and I thought it was over, I started to move. I didn’t know what to do or what exactly I was doing, but it worked. Suddenly as I began to feel the music again, the choreography started to come back to me and as the lyric in the song rang a bell in my head, I started to merge back to the original dance. Everything went back to normal. After my quick improv I had never been so proud yet annoyed at myself. I had messed up the dance, but I thought on my feet. My heartbeat no longer pounding from fear, but from the thrill.
Improvisation, or thinking on your feet is absolutely helpful when going on our journey. When something goes wrong we cannot freeze in panic, but instead, use our quick thinking to handle the difficulty with grace and try to get back on track.
Katherine Ball
Colony Commander
Quest Quality: Determination
I looked over my shoulder and saw a dizzyingly far drop. The sun beat down upon me relentlessly. I began to lift a hand to wipe the sweat from my forehead, but quickly put it back when I remembered the drop below me. If I fell, I would fall down the entire mountain. Above me, my family and friends tried to coach me up the rock. We had just finished a brutal hike on a steep path. When we got to the top, though, all I found was this huge rock, waiting for my tired body to climb it. Suddenly, frustration coursed through me, frustration at my inability to climb this rock and at the impatient sighs from those above me. For a moment, I wanted to climb back down the rock and wait for everyone to finish looking at the view. But part of me knew that if I finished this challenge, I would know that I had it in me to persevere through other challenges in the future. I tuned out the voices and the drop and began making my way up the rock. I won’t lie, I was very slow. But I made it. My determination took me there as much as body did.
Determination is vital to explorers and questers. Going to Mars will be extremely difficult and challenging, and we will be treading a completely new path. Colonists will be tempted to give up, just as I was, but determination will be their saving grace.
Cash Young
Department of defense
Quest Quality: Negotiation
“You’ll just lose it.” “You’ll just break it.” “You’ll get obsessed.” My Mom and Dad said “No.” My heart dropped and crashed into shards of ice . I wasn’t getting a phone anytime soon.
At first, I argued with them saying “Everyone else has a phone.” It was embarrassing being the only eleven year old in my class without a phone.
Then the shards of ice reconstructed as my older brother suggested I stay calm and give our parents reasons for getting the phone.
I talked again with my parents agreeing that it was a reasonable concern that I might spend too much time on a phone. I promised to not get any games initially. I reminded them I kept my second iPod a long time without cracking or losing it.
I stayed calm and repeated my commitments to using a phone wisely.
My eyes gleamed like icy stars that Christmas when I got a phone.
Negotiating and persuasion are vital for a mission to Mars.
Good negotiators need to stay calm and give useful and reasonable information. If it is a big negotiation, find another person or persons who will negotiate on your behalf with you. Build off of each other’s negotiating tactics.
Negotiating is essential in a successful mission to Mars because the mission need to persuade government agencies for funding for the mission and defense.. We will need to negotiate when hiring. We will need to negotiate alliances to protect the colony. Negotiation will keep us safe.
Romy davies
Medical and HEALTH OFFICER
Quest Quality: Persistence
My face was hot with embarrassment and I looked at my feet. “That’s ok Romy, try again another time,” says Sarai, my gymnastics coach. The image of me standing on the bar, legs shaking like jelly, and then leaping to the higher bar to suddenly fall flat on my face keeps rolling around in my head. Then practice is over, and we’re walking back to the locker room. But something deep inside of me turns me around. All of a sudden I’m back at the bars. My heart pounds as my hands grip the first bar, and my muscles ache as I pull myself up to a stand. Nothing else matters except making this jump. I stare at the bar, and it now seems to be miles away from me. I want to get down, give up, go home. No. I glare at the bar and jump. I squeeze my eyes shut, preparing for the impact of the floor, then open my eyes and look up to see my hands wrapped around the high bar. Happiness begins to explode through me.
It’s persistence that gets us through the toughest times. When things get too hard, and you’ve failed too many times, and you just want to give up, it’s persistence that will get you through. It’s the feeling in your chest that won’t go away and won’t let you quit. The journey to Mars won’t be an easy one, and the people that yearn to travel and explore this new planet will have to be filled with an undying persistence.
aNABELLE CAMPBELL
Chief Operations Officer
Quest Quality: Motivation
My legs shook as they pounded down the track. Sweat flooded in rivulets down my face and legs. My chest heaved at every movement. I sounded like an old man struggling up the stairs. I check my mental count: lap 6 out of 8. Two more to go until I had completed the 2-mile run. I looked down, struggling to find the motivation to continue running. All of my body screamed for me to stop. Eyes on the prize. The phrase jumped out at me from the dark corners of my mind. Eyes on the prize. Eyes on the prize! I looked up from the image of the dust swirling around my feet. Eyes on the prize. I straightened my back and ran faster. My breathing became regular. Eyes on the prize. The last lap went by like a breeze.
Motivation is an important quality for the future Martian colonists. It is important to keep the colonists on track, and motivation is the perfect way to do that. They need to be able to “keep calm and carry on” in times of trouble or stress, and never, ever give up.
sCOTT sELF
lEAD ENGINEER
Quest Quality: Trust
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It was now or never, go on Goliath or turn back. There were only five people in front of my cousin Megan and me on this chill night, but my legs were shaking and I thought that this rollercoaster was a shortcut to heaven. Looking at the roller coaster gave me chills and made me cower in fear. Mind you that I was only 8 or 9 years old and I only agreed to go on the ride because my brother Jake dared me to. I thought that I should turn back and be with my dad, who was waiting below, but then my thoughts were interrupted by Megan saying, “If you don't want to do this I can take you back.” I unconsciously said, “No I’m fine” but immediately regretted it. As the line became shorter, I became even more uneasy. When I noticed that I was in the front of the line and the car was approaching, it stopped and opened with laughing and smiling people. Then, Megan turned back and said: “Are you sure you want to do this?” And then I found my answer: “Yes.“ I replied knowing that I would not die because this roller coaster was safe and made for fun and not dying. With that answer, my legs stopped shaking and I stepped into the car with Megan. Then it rolled down the track and then I had the time of my life as I screamed.
This is a important quality because if we do not trust the equipment we use then nobody will want to live on mars because your life depends on equipment that we give you so you must trust it if you are going to mars.
kEnT DUNN
DIPLOMACY AND COMMUNICATIONS
Quest Quality: Bravery
It was one rainy and cold day on the summit of Mount Hood where my life would change for the better. It was the second day of skiing on the ski trip where it was my first time skiing since I was five years old. The date was December 29, 2018, and I will always remember the day for the rest of my life. My brother didn’t know what to expect when we hopped on the Mount Hood Express Lift that had a vertical rise of about 1,200 feet to 6,500 feet elevation on the summit of Mount Hood. Once we got up there, my brother and I were so frightened our legs were shaking heavily and both our hands and noses were frozen to almost ice. The rain was still there on the top of the mountain which made a party of ice which was nothing short of GREAT. I’m being a little sarcastic. Skiing next to black diamonds alone with an ice festival 6,500 above everything else is not the most fun thing for a beginner. It turned out to be a disaster but we ended up doing it 2 days later and completely mastered it. This is why bravery is so important because, without it, you can’t do anything in life.
This is similar to going to Mars because in order to get to Mars, we will have to be brave and push outside of our comfort zones in order to be successful on Mars.