A 4-year-old boy in the U.K. asked NASA about his homework. Lucas Whiteley decided that his homework questions required the help of experts, and created a video with the help of his father. The boy’s father, James Whiteley, had done as a child just what Lucas was asking: he’d sent questions to NASA. In response to his questions for NASA, James received a brochure.
Hoping his son would get the same reaction, he helped Lucas create a video with his three questions:
- How many stars are there in the universe?
- In the race to the moon, who placed second and third?
- Were animals sent to the moon, too?
The young Whiteley was overwhelmed with NASA’s reply. It wasn’t simply a brochure or reading material like his dad received, but NASA sent a video reply. Engineer Ted Garbeff of NASA based at the Ames Research Center in California responded with a 10-minute video, which he posted on YouTube. In the video, Garbeff answered each of the boy’s three questions. On top of that, Whiteley got an offer to tour the NASA facility.
It wasn’t the first time that NASA went the extra mile for inquiring young minds. Last year, a 7-year-old boy named Dexter wrote to NASA about his dream of flying to Mars, to which he received an encouraging message and package.