Cañada Students to Visit NASA, Plan Mars Exploration

Sagar Singh spent his entire winter break researching and writing essays justifying why the US should spend $700 million to send his rover to Mars. The rover’s ability to unearth rich amounts of methane could be a crucial sign of life on Mars, he explained.

After a rigorous application process, Singh and his two other classmates, Victor Vargas and Omar Arriaga, were selected to attend a three-day trip through the National Community College Aerospace Scholars program at either the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena or the Johnson Space Center in Houston to prototype real rovers and meet actual astronauts.

“I never saw myself going to National Space Center for any reason,” Vargas said. “It definitely motivates me to pursue higher education.”

The three students are all majoring in STEM, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, not common for minorities and those from low income families. They all said it was a privilege to attend this trip and an enormous opportunity that they hadn’t imagined before.

“I’m first generation American,” Singh said. “So this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t miss.”

They will join 92 other community college students from across the station in this opportunity to not only interact with the NASA scientists, but with each other.

Similar to the application process in which they had to design a complete mission, the participants will form teams to establish fictional Mars exploration companies. They will design and prototype the rover, complete with a budget and finally present it to NASA employees.

For Vargas’s rover, Vargas designed his mission to uncover the geothermal activity going on under Mars to discover any water or liquid. He explained that Google had already snapped comprehensive photos of Mars to create software similar to Google Earth, but for Mars.

“I couldn’t justify a mission that just scanned the surface,” he said. “But the liquid under the surface could potentially benefit humanity.”

Singh, currently majoring in computer engineering, said that he would consider a double major in aerospace engineering as well.

Arriaga agreed that he would “definitely take the opportunity” to work in aerospace engineering. He and Vargas and Arriaga plan to continue on to a four year university to further their engineering studies.

“We need more STEM majors from a minority background so we can motivate others to continue their education,” Arriaga said.

The three are all students of Professor Amelito Enriquez, a Filipino-American who recently won the White House’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.

Vargas said without Enriquez’s initial email, they would have never heard of this program.

“He’s been one of the greatest assets in the STEM program so far,” Vargas said. “He keeps me motivated, and he’s living testament that the dream can be achieved.”

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