Asia Aguilar, a junior at Zillah High School, has been accepted into the Washington Aerospace Scholars program.
Aguilar will participate in phase one of the program. Aguilar was among more than 1,000 students who applied for the program by submitting a personal writing essay and demonstrate proficiency in math and science.
To qualify for the program, a student must be a high school junior, have a minimum 3.0 grade point average, be a United States citizen and a Washington State resident.
“We are very proud of these students,” said Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar, president and CEO of the Washington Museum of Flight in Seattle. “They are the generation who will solve the challenges of the present and create future dreams.”
Aguilar is one of 240 students selected to participate in a five-month online study program.  During the NASA-designed course, students will study history of human spaceflight and analysis data that supports evidence of the theory of life on Mars.
Aguilar will complete 10 online lessons including submitting written essays, computer space related math problems and design graphics to illustrate lesson ideas.
Based on their individual academic performance in the initial phase one, 140 students will be chosen to attend a summer residency program at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
During the residency project, students will take the information they learned during their online lessons to work together in teams to design a human mission to Mars.
Individual teams will work on specific mission management, budget, legal aspects of space exploration or medical space projects.