While a typical teenager will spend their summer babysitting, burger-flipping, or doing any other nagging jobs, Tomball High School junior Theodore Hale has been given a rare opportunity to help NASA on its quest for Mars.

He will be working at a NASA research station based inIdaho Falls,Idaho, with a group of scientists whose goal is to invent a device to send pulses of magnetic rays to Mars.

“I’m not completely positive what they’re going to have me do,” he explained, “and the contract I signed won’t let me give a whole lot of detail.”

After an orientation at NASA, Hale will be the only high school student at theIdaho Fallscomplex starting June 4 for eight to 10 weeks. He mostly looks forward to all the people he’ll meet and having the chance to actually perform at a job rather than just doing schoolwork.

While he won’t get paid, Hale simply couldn’t pass up this “one-time thing” and is happy to help with something that interests him. His true inspiration is his grandfather, who was a chemical engineer who really got him hooked for this range of science.

He may not have the experience that most of the scientists there will have, but that could work in his favor.

“They want youthful minds to say silly ideas that might actually work,” he explains; evidently making him perfect for the job. He will be living with two grad students during his stay there atIdaho Fallsresearch center and assist a team of eight other graduates and two doctors.

In 10 years, Hale sees himself as a graduate with a PhD in chemistry while working in an energy corporation. He is thankful for all the teachers who wrote him letters of recommendation and the encouragement his teachers gave him for this opportunity.