This episode was recorded at the Inter Astra Retreat just outside Washington DC last November (2023). I sat down with Stella Marcy, a high school freshman from upstate New York with big dreams of becoming an astrobiologist.

Stella’s passion for exploring the origins of life on other planets and her curiosity about the universe is truly inspiring. In our conversation, we discussed what it means to be an astrobiologist, the tools scientists use to search for life beyond Earth, and how high school student Stella can prepare for her career.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• What astrobiologists do.

• The importance of STEM education in pursuing a career in space science.

• How young students can get involved in STEM programs and research opportunities.

• Stella’s inspirations and her goals for the future, including her dream universities.

• Insights from the Inter Astra Retreat.

Quote: 

"INTER ASTRA IS A GREAT WAY TO MAKE CONNECTIONS, TO GET INTERNSHIPS OR RESEARCH PROJECTS OR MENTORS WHO ALSO WOULD REALLY HELP ME."  

- STELLA MARCY

Episode Links: 

• Follow Inter Astra on LinkedIn 
• Discover more about Inter Astra 

Credits:  

Production by CxS Partners LTD  

Executive Producer: Toby Goodman  

Audio & Sound Design: Lee Turner  

Artwork: Ryan Field 

Recorded on location on Nomono Sound Capsule 

Explore more episodes at Kathy Sullivan Explores... https://kathysullivaneexplores.com/ 

Find even more podcasts on the Inter Astra Podcast Network HERE 

SPACESHIP NOT REQUIRED

I’m Kathy Sullivan, the only person to have walked in space and gone to the deepest point in the ocean.

I’m an explorer, and that doesn’t always have to involve going to some remote or exotic place. It simply requires a commitment to put curiosity into action.

In this podcast, you can explore, reflecting on lessons learned from life so far and from my brilliant and ever-inquisitive guests. We explore together in this very moment from right where you are… spaceship not required.

Welcome to Kathy Sullivan Explores.

I'm Kathy Sullivan, formerly of NASA and NOAA and, trained as a deep sea geologist, but wandering off into many other things since. Hello, Stella.

Hi. I'm Stella Marcy. I'm a freshman in high school from upstate New York, and I'd like to be an astrobiologist.

I am the only person to have walked in space and gone to the deepest point in the ocean. Hi. I'm Kathy Sullivan, and I'm an explorer. Exploring doesn't always have to involve going to some remote or exotic place. It simply requires your commitment to put curiosity into action. So join me on this podcast journey as I reflect on lessons learned from life so far and from my brilliant and ever inquisitive guests. We'll explore together in this very moment from right where you are. Spaceship not required.

Welcome to Kathy Sullivan Explores. Welcome. Today, I'm sharing another fascinating in person corridor conversation I had at the Inter Astra retreat last November. One of the things that makes the retreat special is the unique mix of industry leaders and emerging talents. Our youngest participant was Stella Marci, a high school freshman from upstate New York with big dreams of becoming an astrobiologist. Stella shared her experiences and inspirations, and we talked about what it means to explore the origins of life on other planets, the tools scientists use for these discoveries, and how a high school student prepares for such an ambitious career. So join me once again in the hallways of the Inter Astra retreat for this inspiring conversation with Stella Marci.

So what do astrobiologists do? They study origins of life, life on other planets, look for, liquid on other planets that life could develop in. And so we don't get to go to

too many other planets, like, a few of us have been to the moon and maybe more will go back. How do you do that? I know a little bit about some of the telescopes Mhmm. That look for signals.

Yeah. Radio telescopes definitely. Also just like testing, like, samples from the planets. Yeah. It's way easier to send like robots to Europa, Titan, Saturn, and then they can bring you stuff back that you can test for any signs of life, whether it be, like, a whole advanced civilization, far more advanced than humans, or just a little single celled organism. Which do

you think is more likely?

Probably a single celled organism.

So NASA fairly recently got back a probe called OSIRIS x that bumped into an asteroid and grabbed a little bit of it and brought it back. Have you been following what's happening with that? No. I actually haven't. Yeah. It's, you know, this little craft that came from, like, 200,000,000 miles away Oh, wow. Slightly, sort of beach ball size ish. You know, came down under a parachute in New Mexico, and it's been the it's been a big thing in the news watching the people in their white bunny suits, you know, carry it back to a lab and carefully open it and start to look at the stuff, and it's just gonna look like a handful or so of gravel inside. It's not Right.

It's a lot more. A lot of stuff, but it's pretty amazing to go grab a bunch of rocks from 200,000,000 miles away.

Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah.

And I so I'm gonna be fascinated to see once they start getting them under microscopes and so forth. Yeah. They're really fine. Whereabouts in upstate New York again?

I live outside of Albany, kinda a little of nowhere. Okay. And you're still in high school. Right? I am. Yeah. Just started high school. Very cool.

What are you gonna be able to take in high school? I don't know of any high schools that teach astrobiology. No. So how are you looking at your path through high school as your launch pad for your astrobiology?

Just getting involved in, like, any STEM programs I can. You know, my school doesn't really offer many, but I'm also currently taking biology. It's like a requirement, but I'm in honors for it. So just paying attention in that. They also offer AP bio, for, like, juniors and seniors, I think. So I'll definitely be taking that. Also, like, here is just at this conference is a great way to make connections, to get internships or research projects or mentors who also would really help me. Yeah.

So to go into astrobiology, I get the biology part. But and, again, I'm a geologist, so you have to correct me if I have this wrong. The the telescopes that we use to look at distant stars and see if if we could spot the light from what looks like a star sort of popping in and out, sometimes it means often that a planet Yes. Is passing between us and the and the, and the star, and it's occulting it briefly, and blanking it out briefly. But the insight we get from those, as I understand it, is we're measuring the spectrum Yeah. Of that star, and it has a certain set of squiggles on it. And when the planet goes in front, some of the squiggles go away. Do a lot of math.

Yeah. You can understand that there is or isn't nitrogen or oxygen in that atmosphere. But that's chemistry. So how does chemistry gonna play a part in your, curriculum as well?

Is it Oh, definitely. Okay. Yeah. You know, chemistry is what makes up biology. Without chemistry, we wouldn't be here. So Okay. Definitely plays a big part. So you you are someone who's actually going

to have to master organic chemistry?

I guess

so. And it has thwarted more than a few would be pre med majors. So Right. Yeah. You're just 1st year of high school. It's early to ask you this yet, but are there some universities in particular you you'd hope to end up at to

accelerate the astral Definitely. I'd really like to go to MIT. I really like the location, but also they have a really good, like, biology and astronomy programs, which would be really helpful. Any others? Yeah. Definitely, Harvard is on my list. Caltech, Berkeley. Yeah. Those are my tough

ones. You're gonna need that GPA, my friend. That airplane average is gonna be big. So you told me you've gotten a lot of inspiration and Yeah. Some fresh thinking about law, the the relevance and impact of law in everything having to do with space. Any other particular things that stick with you that

Yeah. Definitely, like, this conference just gave me a better idea of, like, what you need to get into the space industry. You know, like, yeah, you need to go to college, but like the hands on experience that would help you and all of that. So that was really great.

Okay. Could you who did you find in your sessions? So a lot of what Inter Astra does is just conversations in circle. It's not wizards on a panel Yeah. Speaking to peep peasants in the audience kind of thing. Were there any particularly interesting people in your sessions, in your discussions?

Yeah. I'm blanking on his last name, but astronaut Michael Mike Massanino. Yes. He has some really interesting things to say. Gave a lot of insight on being an astronaut. You know, like food you guys eat and stuff, which was just really interesting. But he was definitely very inspiring to, like, not give up and you'll get rejected before, like, you get the job, you know. Yeah.

I think he told me that it took him 3 rejections from NASA until he was an astronaut.

So And there's another astronaut named Clayton Anderson who got rejected 15 times. Yeah. Finally got selected on 16th.

So just have perseverance to keep going after all those rejections.

So I actually I I my undergraduate degree is from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and I wanted to go there because they had an excellent language program. That's the direction I thought I was gonna go at the time. By so I applied, filled out the all of the application, and I got the skinny letter that says, no. Thank you. Yeah. And I was, you know, 16, 17 year old for senior in high school. I'm completely crushed. I know that's where I wanna go.

In my day, you didn't visit 34 college campuses and check out the dining hall. I was lucky we got to visit Santa Cruz. The rest was studying their catalogs back when they actually printed catalogs. I think I had about 15 college catalogs and was trying to make sense of that. So I mean, I was just absolutely crushed and wicked my wounds a little bit overnight. And then I sat down and I, you know, I knew this was my job to to do, not my mom's job to do.

Oh, hon.

And I I wrote back to the admissions office. Yeah. I didn't even have a name, and said, I got it. Really disappointed. Was able to visit the campus and really felt that's where I should be. Can you tell me at what points? I'd like to know on what points I was not competitive. Yeah. Do you do you have any second round considerations? If so, please give me another look in the 2nd round.

And because University of California has multiple campuses, if the campus you apply to rejects you, you can ask to be put into consideration at the other campuses. So it was those three things. What where did I fall short? Are you gonna take any second looks? And, well, if none of the above, please forward my application over here. And I sent that off. I don't I don't know. Seemed a sensible thing to do and a hopeful thing to do, but I don't think I had any real clue whether there's a chance of this. But Mhmm. Well, yeah, to your point, you take charge and take make a stab, and the first answer was no, but, you know, at least ask why I learned from that.

Yeah.

And time went on some number more weeks, and suddenly the fat envelope arrived saying, well, congratulations and welcome to Santa Cruz. Oh, wow. And I then spent the whole summer thinking, what if they were right the first time and I and I don't belong there and I won't, you know, I won't make it. It won't work out. Mhmm. So it's just it just reinforces your point and Mike's point. Yeah. If you get really, really convinced that this is the path I need to go, I keep trying.

Keep and, you know, the guys who get on their 3rd or 5th or 6th time in the astronaut corps. It's usually because they asked the same question I asked. They would talk to the folks that would run the selection process and say, so what part of my background could I work on strengthening, shoring up? Mistakes. Right? I've got some of the toolkit, but clearly not quite all of the toolkit. That's on me. What can I do to flesh out my toolkit? You've learned that lesson a whole lot younger than the rest of us. So what do you like besides your chemistry and your biology? Are you musical? Do you do sports?

Oh, no music. But I do, I run track, which running is okay. I mainly do it because my friends do. But I, am really into tennis. Singles, doubles?

I play singles. Yeah. Yep. So any sense of what is tennis besides keeping you fit and giving you a recreation, or do you see other benefits potentially lifetime benefits coming out of, sport?

I mean, I made a lot of friends through tennis, you know, because I played when I was in middle school on, like, the high school team. So going into the high school, I had friends, and that was really good. I think it just gives you like I don't even know how to explain it, but when you're playing tennis, it's super frustrating when you hit into the net when you lose cause you just know that you could have done better. But I think that transfers over to like a lot of different aspects of life. Like, to just learn from your mistakes, you know. Mhmm. Because hit it into an end, I'm like, oh, I was holding my racket the wrong way. I'll fix that next time, and it won't happen again.

Yeah. Yeah. And to not get so obsessed. Yeah. Don't get so down on yourself about the shot you missed. Yeah. You can't take the next shot.

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It's very cool.

Do you have any questions for me?

Yeah. I mean, how did you even get into, like, the ocean and space and, like, both of those things?

Very random walk. So, you know, I I did not have a plan. I did not have a job title in mind.

Mhmm.

I had really admired I mean, I'd watched the early astronauts and Jacques Cousteau. They were they were big media figures at all print magazines then, but they were big media figures when I was growing up, slightly younger than you even. What really stuck with me is I was just really enthralled with the adventurousness and the inquisitiveness of what they were doing. Mhmm. They were they were both doing things no one had ever done before. Yeah. So they you know, you've got an idea. There's no handbook.

There's no textbook. But they've thought through and figured out, Mhmm. Well, we'll take a stab at it this way. And they try it, and they, you know, they would flex and adjust as things didn't go well. And then the scale of the adventure, you know, voyaging off to the far parts of the ocean and Yeah. Flying off in this base. Now my dad was an engineer, and I think he clearly played a part in attuning me to that because even even little things like planning a weekend outing, a weekend picnic, or a fishing trip

Yeah.

He was really good at drawing my brother and me and to be, you know, co planners with him. So it wouldn't he wouldn't just pronounce, here's what we're gonna do. So what so we're gonna go up to, like, how what do you think we ought to do? And it's you know? And we'd be part of

thinking through.

Yeah. We were usually not making great contributions to the plan, but we are getting that familiarity with how to ask. You ask a question, what are we gonna do, or what are we gonna need to take? And you think it through, and then you do it. And that's sort of building a muscle. And so that was what really drew me.

The talent that I recognized in myself, at about grade 5 was a flare, a natural aptitude for foreign languages, at least the at least the romance, you know, French, Spanish, Italian. And since I what I really wanted to do is to get to explore the world. Mhmm.

You know, not just to travel, to pick up, tchotchkes, but to actually understand other places, other countries. So I figured, well, you're good at languages. There's gotta be a path way that using that skill can get you Yeah. That opportunity. Off I go to college, absolutely planning to do that. And at my university, if you were planning to do arts or languages major, during your 1st year, you had to take 3 natural science courses. Oh, 3 so long. And vice versa.

Uh-huh. Just to, you know, brought a little bit of breath. You're 17 or 18 years old. You don't really know everything that's out in the world. You might not even really know quite the full span of your own interest yet. Yeah. So we're gonna make sure you experiment a little. Yeah.

That's and I govern geology and oceanography through 2 of those mandatory courses. And I also saw in the lives of those professors, I saw the same kind of adventure and inquisitiveness I had admired in the astronauts. I thought these are the kind of people I wanna be with, so I changed my major. Oh, wow. I had to I had to scamper. I I had to scamper a lot because the math and chemistry I would have taken in high school if I'd known I would go that path. I swapped all those for language credits. So I had to scamper pretty hard to catch back up on those requirements, in college.

And off I went into, you know, deep sea oceanography and geology. And the way that got me I'm sure the way that got me into NASA was because it it's really all about expedition planning.

Mhmm.

It was like what Cousteau was doing. We don't know anything about this part of the ocean. What equipment do we need to make what kind of measurements? How do we make that work on the ship? Mhmm. Here's our game plan, and then this breaks where the storm comes up, and you've got to adapt on the fly.

Yeah.

And the answer when you come back to the dock needs to be, we got the data we needed. So all that planning, what if thing, you know, scenarios, and then flexing and adapting, on the fly in real time At much smaller speed, much lower speed, and much smaller scale, that's the same stuff Yeah. That an astronaut does. So I I think that was, I was good at that. I loved that.

I knew I was good at it. Could I do it at 17,500 miles an hour? NASA was gonna have to answer. I thought I could, but they have to decide I can.

Yeah. Yeah. So that was that was the pathway.

That's really interesting.

Not some not something I ever the first time I ended up being an astronaut was when I filled out the paperwork the year before I finished my PhD. Oh, wow. So Yeah. Stay open to some of those surprises. Yeah. You'd you never know. And I you know, I think in my generation in my father's generation, you've got a job and, you know, it was a job for your career. Maybe you maybe companies change once or twice.

Even in my generation, it's flexed. And in your generation, it's more and more the case that your career will be a mix and match of things. And

Yeah.

At some point, you may take your you might take your science and tech skills and go into space law because Yeah. You've got the scientific capability, the technical knowledge capability to understand the technical side.

Mhmm.

And then you can also master the business or the law side. And that's a really powerful combination we need more of. Yeah. So good luck. Thank you. I wanna stay posted on how it's going. I will. Yeah.

You stay in contact.

We will do that.

Alright. Thanks. Thank you for having me.

Yeah. My pleasure.

Thanks so much for joining me on today's mission. For more solo shows and deep dives with incredible guests along with all the ways to get the podcast and much more, head over to kathysullivaneexplorers.com

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