A teenager at the helm of a starship? Young people barely into their twenties exploring remote regions of our galaxy? From Travis Mayweather to Pavel Chekov to Wesley Crusher they've walked the deck plating of Starfleet vessels for centuries. Standard fare on Star Trek. Given the many similarities between Starfleet and modern Navy service, this shouldn't be surprising.

While we have flown people in their sixties and seventies in space, we haven't really flown a lot of young people. To be certain, the first human to orbit our planet was a 28-year-old named Yuri. Since that inaugural flight everyone has been older — rather than younger.

That may (or may not) change soon. By now most people know that Lance Bass from the music group 'N Sync has been tapped to fly aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). At age 23, Lance would be the youngest person to ever fly in space (see related story).

This all began when some Hollywood producers were looking to do a "reality" series centered on someone preparing and then going into space. Lance has a long-standing interest in space, having attended Space Camp. During an online chat he was asked what he'd do if he wasn't a musician. His answer: "Be an astronaut." This answer found its way to the producers and Lance got a phone call asking if he'd be interested in this project. Lance said yes.

Flying to the ISS these days as a paying passenger can only be done on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Several times a year Soyuz vehicles in orbit docked to the ISS (serving as escape vehicles) need to be replaced as they reach the end of their six-month service life. So-called "Taxi missions" are flown to bring a new Soyuz up and bring the old one home. There are three seats in a Soyuz. Two of the occupants need to be fully certified Soyuz pilots, leaving the third seat for a passenger. (Photo courtesy NASA)

Given the financial problems plaguing their space program these days, the Russians saw this as an opportunity to generate some hard cash to keep their space efforts going. At $20 million per flight, and two flights per year, this could amount to $40 million a year in additional revenue. American millionaire Dennis Tito was the first self-financed space tourist to make such a trip. South African millionaire Mark Shuttleworth was the second.

While Lance is certainly making a comfortable income, shelling out $20 million would probably be a difficult thing for him to do. Lance's flight would be done a bit differently with the funds raised from a variety of sponsors. This task has been a bit more difficult than Lance's backers first thought.

Alas, the most recent news from Russia doesn't look good for Lance. His backers have not managed to come up with the money and Russia has said that Lance is no longer on the flight. Things have gone back and forth on this issue, but this time the Russians seem to be serious. Undeterred, Lance has vowed to try and get on another flight if these plans don't work out. (See related news brief on ETOnline.com.)

Many people have expressed concerns about sending tourists to a space station paid for with taxpayer dollars. NASA was initially against this, and resisted the notion of flying Dennis Tito until it became obvious that Russia was going to go ahead and fly him. As time passed, NASA has switched from a negative stance to one that seeks to enable these visits. Indeed, many within the agency think that this flight could actually serve a very positive role: exciting kids about space.

Last week Lance faced the full onslaught of the NASA press corps. He did rather well as he answered their questions. "No," he is not fluent in Russian but his training will, in his eyes, make him fully qualified for anything that may happen — normal or emergency — during his flight. "Yes," he will probably sing something in space. (Photo courtesy NASA)

The head of NASA's Astronaut Office, Charlie Precourt, spoke confidently that Lance would be capable of handling himself in space and that he had met all of the requirements that the ISS program has levied upon all visitors to the station.

I asked Lance if he could provide a justification for his flight, given that the space station represents a $25 billion investment (thus far) by U.S. taxpayers. Specifically, I asked him what would come from his flight that would be of equal significance to flying a scientist in the seat he'd be riding in.

Lance replied, "Good question." He went on to say that he saw the core purpose of his flight to be education and to get kids excited in science and math — with the hope that they'd pursue a career in space technology. He will be filming a series of educational videos in space that will later be used in classrooms.

I asked him if this focus on education would be a short-term commitment, or if he'd be doing this years from now. Lance said that he had plans to be promoting space for a long time, and that this might include visiting schools each time he and his band stopped in a city to give a concert. In a nutshell: Lance hopes that his trip (as a young person) will allow him to act as a role model to inspire others. His predecessor Mark Shuttleworth (28 years old) is currently traveling around Africa from school to school relating his experiences.

Role models are important in guiding young (and not so young) people along on their careers. NASA, like the Star Trek series, has provided many examples worthy of emulation. As has been mentioned previously in this column, some of NASA's leaders have had their own careers influenced by characters they've seen on TV.

One such example is Astronaut Fred Gregory, who was motivated to apply for the astronaut program when he saw a NASA TV ad featuring Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura). Last Friday I had the pleasure of sitting in the auditorium at NASA Headquarters as Fred was sworn in as the Deputy Administrator of NASA.

Nichelle often tells the story wherein she was thinking of leaving Star Trek and that an encounter with Martin Luther King — and his comments that she served as a much-needed role model — convinced her to stay. She did and years later gave Fred Gregory the impetus to apply to be an astronaut.

Fred told me once that he has made more than 3,000 individual public presentations at schools and other venues during his career at NASA. Now, as the agency's "ambassador," according to NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe at the swearing-in ceremony, Fred will be in a much more prominent position to continue this outreach.

Time will tell if Lance Bass will get the chance to fly in space. Regardless, with a new agency-wide focus on education being assembled at NASA (one championed personally by Administrator O'Keefe) — and the flight of teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan — teachers need to be prepared for a surge in space-inspired kids.

I wonder how long it will be before someone (NASA?) starts to look for a nice building site for Starfleet Academy...

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