How many 11-year-olds do you know who aspire to become a mission specialist on a space excavation to Mars? It’s just one of the many qualities that make Bedford resident Sydney Richardson, 11, one of a kind.

While most preteens enjoy shopping or listening to the latest Justin Bieber album, Sydney is busy preparing for her lifetime goal, to be one of the first people in the world to walk on Mars.

“Everyone thought Galileo was crazy,” Sydney said. “He was one of the first to believe that the earth was not the center of the universe. That we, in fact, circled around the sun, not the other way around.”

Last week, Sydney took the first steps toward her goal and attended the U.S Space and Rocket Center camp in Alabama.

“It was my first sleep-away camp,” Sydney said. “I’ve slept over relatives’ and friends’ houses before, but this was my first camp.”

Sydney learned about space camp from reading nonfiction books and watching the Discovery Channel, PBS and National Geographic.

“I like chemistry and science,” Sydney said when asked what drew her to space. “I want to take samples from Mars and learn more about it.”

“She’s been asking me to go to space camp since the fourth grade,” said Sydney’s mother, Wendy Richardson. “Once she became old enough, we let her go.”

Sydney is currently home-schooled and is going into sixth grade. To prepare for the journey, Sydney studied physics and science and frequently took trips to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord.

“At the discovery center, there was a Mars simulation,” Sydney said. “I got to calculate my body weight.”

After completing her studies, Sydney was ready for space camp.

“The camp is located in Huntsville, Ala. That’s where many astronauts train,” Sydney said. “After World War II, the Americans captured German rocket scientists and sent them to Alabama.”

Indeed, Huntsville is a hot spot for studying space exploration. The city is nicknamed “The Rocket City,” and when crossing the border, visitors are welcomed with a giant replica of a space rocket.

Once at space camp, Sydney and the other campers were separated into groups. Sydney was placed into the Armstrong group, a bittersweet tribute to Neil Armstrong.

“The day I left camp, Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, passed away,” Sydney said.

At space camp, Sydney attended lectures on rocket theory, strapped into space simulation machinery and participated in mock missions inside a replica of the International Space Station.

“In one of the missions, I got to be a mission specialist,” Sydney said. “My job was to study the effect water has on plants in space. I measured how much the plants grew and how much food was on them.”

Sydney also said one of her favorite simulations was walking on the moon, a simulation that allows campers to experience the feeling of being weightless.

“There are three ways you can walk on the moon,” Sydney said. “You can bunny hop, slow jog or jump sideways. You always want to jump for distance, not height.”

According to Sydney, one of the highlights of her trip was meeting renowned astronaut Robert Lee “Hoot” Gibson, who is famous for greeting the Russians in space during the U.S. and Russian Cold War negotiations.

“Everyone thinks space exploration is over,” Sydney said. “But by the year 2017, NASA has plans to collect more data in space.”

The latest news in space exploration is the Mars rover, an automated motor vehicle that is currently moving across the surface of the planet. The rover landed this month and is collecting data from the planet and sending back to U.S. scientists.

“Scientists believe there was life on Mars in the form of bacteria,” Sydney said. “I think there might be life in space on one of Saturn’s moons or out in a different galaxy. You need water, food and good soil to survive, and air to breathe. With all of this, you have a good chance of life.”

Now that Sydney is back from her space camp mission, she aspires to take the next steps to completing her lifetime goal to walk on Mars.

“To become an astronaut, you need a B.A. in physics and mathematics. To become a mission specialist, which is what I want to do, I must study three years in a certain field.”

Currently, Sydney is interested in studying soil samples and learning about how life can grow on different planets. She is also interested in the handling of different chemicals to power rockets.

“It’s not just about the rocket ride. It’s also about what you can contribute to the mission once you are in space,” said Sydney’s father, Mark Richardson.

But what would Sydney’s life be like in space?

“Once in space, the astronauts have to eat dried food because crumbs could potentially float into the machinery,” Sydney said. “I also would wear a lot of Velcro all over my flight suit to attach food and supplies to myself, because otherwise they would just float around.”

Sydney plans to attend space academy in another two years. After completing space academy, she then will go on to finish advanced space academy.

When she’s not studying to become a mission specialist, Sydney enjoys reading nonfiction books such as ancient history and Roman and Greek mythology.

“The ancients, like the Egyptians, believed the stars were just floating balls and didn’t realize they were sources of light energy,” Sydney said. “The Greeks and Romans named the planets after their gods because the planets embodied certain characteristics. For example, the planet Mars is red, and red is a color of war, and so the Romans named the planet Mars after their god of war.”

“People like simple answers, like A, B and C, but answers in space aren’t simple,” Mark Richardson said. “They are trying to answer questions like how to sustain life in space, and those types of questions have complicated answers. They require money and years of dedication.”

For Sydney, that’s a challenge she’s willing to take.

Katelyn Dobbs can be reached at 594-6549 or kdobbs@nashuatelegraph.com.