Our Team

Luca D'Agruma

Department of Defense and Diplomacy and Communications

  Quest Quality: Creativity

“Let's play firemen,” my three year old self said. Ever since we moved to N.Y.C, I stopped by the fire station every day. For me every game was a fire, a problem, an imaginary challenge that I had to solve. Today it was a trapped person on a burning building. I responded automatically, my parents and I knowing the drill. Save the person; put out the fire. My imaginary challenge got harder and harder. I did crazy, impossible things in these worlds of mine, helping and solving and beating the bad guy. As I grew older, I became a policeman, shooting the terrorist or catching the escapee. Then I lost myself in the world of stories from books that I read, learning from what went wrong and where past generals failed. Now, I challenge myself with actual problems in school. I bring the same improvisational creativity to my work. The unique ideas, the crazy thoughts, and the unconventional way I think are key to how I solve problems today.

Creativity is the most important quest quality because it enables people to create ideas out of nothing. Creative people will find solutions for every problem. Say, for instance, a rover is not turning on. A creative person will look at the problem and say “let’s try this” and keep coming up with new ideas until one works. A creative person is by meaning unconventional, which is extremely important when making unique ideas or solving difficult problems.  

Autumn Litten

Medical and Health Officer

Quest Quality: Perseverance

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It had sounded so easy and fun and I was sure I could do it, it was easy as pie. It turned out that biking 350 miles in four days was much more challenging than that. The first day, everything was sunshine and rainbows. The next day, I tried just to breathe in the green forest air and forget about how my legs were on fire. I knew there was no going back. The third day, the fire had grown to be unstoppable, and everything ached. As darkness overtook the forest, the moon shined and the stars twinkled down through the trees, but not bright enough to light the trail. A town still wasn’t in sight. I swallowed my nervous thoughts with a quick gulp. We had to keep biking. Pushing forward through the emptiness. Giving up wasn’t an option. Finally, we made it. I exhaled as if I had been holding my breath the whole ride, and a new sense of confidence washed over me. I realized that if I persevered, I could do anything. I will never forget that feeling. Then, my dad said, “That was 90 miles”.

Perseverance is the most important quality to have while colonizing Mars because when something goes wrong, we will need to persevere and figure out the solution.There is no turning back. This is true for the first Mission to Mars because when faced with a challenge, all we can do is persevere.

Luca Steffen

Chief Operations Officer and Lead Engineer

Quest Quality: Persistence

    My legs were shaking like a woodpecker on a telephone pole. My legs were burning like a fire spreading through the forest. The hill was getting stepper by the minute. We have already biked over 20 miles and gained 3000 feet of elevation. We only had 5 miles left but we still had to gain 2000 feet of elevation to get to the hut on the hill. I knew if I wanted to reach the top of the hill to have lunch and to see the beautiful view of Garmisch-Partenkirchen I would have to keep going. All of the beautiful pictures I have seen of the view and oh how I was craving some rosti(A german dish which is potato pancake with egg and speck). You learn the most about yourself in pressure situations and I learned that you can make it through the pain to become your greatest self. I believe that persistence will be a very important attribute to have on a journey to mars. We all can agree that a mission to mars wouldn’t be something easy and we will have challenges. One couldn’t just give up on such an important journey, they would have to persist through these hard times.