Michaela Musilová suiting up. (source: Josh Burstein)
It starts with a typical childhood experience. We receive our first encyclopaedia and, scanning through its contents, we suddenly find the section about space. A new universe opens before us, with its different planets, solar systems and galaxies. And the question we ask ourselves is whether people like us live on those other planets?
For most people, it ends there. For others, this fascination can eventually kick-off their future career and become a life-long passion. The now 30-year-old Michaela Musilová, a successful Slovak scientist and astrobiologist, is one of the latter.
“It has always been my dream to become an astronaut,” Musilová said.
Her dream came true when she participated in several simulated missions to Mars and, more recently, to the Moon. She is still trying to do her utmost to be selected to fly to actual space one day.
Despite the years she spent abroad and her activities, including a recent job as the commander of all future simulated missions in Hawaii, she keeps returning to Slovakia and paving the way in space research for other young talents from the central European region.
Sci-fi novels and clothing for aliens
Musilová’s passion for space began when she was about eight years old. While waiting for her parents who had gone shopping, she started scanning through an encyclopaedia and reading about space.
