The Astronaut Instruction Manual for Pre-Teens

"My name is Mike Mongo and I'm an Astronaut Teacher."

For the past six years, as an invited guest, I have visited schools and classrooms around the world to make today’s young students aware that tomorrow's jobs—the best jobs ever!—are in space.

I, my good friend, am an astronaut teacher.

Astronaut teacher is pretty much the greatest job in the world. I get to travel, work with amazing people, and best of all meet with young students who love everything about space.

Each of these students already know exactly what they want to do when they grow up—go to outer space!—and have just been waiting for some person (i.e., an astronaut teacher) to tell them that which they've been longing to hear. Which is this:

"If today you are between the ages of 9 and 12, by the time you are out of college—around year 2025—you will have the opportunity to be among the first human beings who live, work, and play in space."

Every day I share what I call "the Two Magic Questions." These two questions together get students thinking of space and themselves as one single idea. The two magic questions are, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" and "Have you ever thought about being an astronaut?"

Allowing students the freedom to envision themselves as living, working, and playing in space is key. It all comes down to the simple fact that kids, like adults, intensely want to go to space.

Our job, as adults, is to provide them with the tools to make their dream of space become our future and their reality. Our job is to let them know their dream job can be working in space. So I have written the first astronaut instruction manual. For Pre-Teens.

HUMANNAIRES!

The Astronaut Instruction Manual for Pre-Teens , or Mike Mongo's HUMANNAIRES! (full title) is an actual working astronaut instruction manual. It is designed to let today's young students who want to live, work, and play in space know that they are one of the most important parts of the current space movement. Just by being 9 to 12 years old at this moment in human history, today's young students can be one of the Humannaires*, the next-generation of astronauts, by the time they are out of college.

*btw  the title "Humannaires" was inspired by "Legionnaires".

From The Astronaut Instruction Manual for Pre-Teens: 

If you are not yet in high school,
the next few years are going to be the most important for you
if you plan on being one of the next kind of astronauts,
the Humannaires,
by the time you are in your twenties.
Like many of us,
you are planning on becoming a space-dwelling human being.
That makes you...a Humannaire!

Astronauts 
and cosmonauts 
and spationauts and taikonauts and gaganauts 
paved the way for us. '
Nauts were actually the first trailblazers to get off Planet Earth 
and to go out into space. 
In their time and even still today,
'nauts were unlike any other human alive. '
'Naires are unlike even 'nauts. 
We are the first humans to move out to space!
...

Advice That Stands Even If You're Staying on Earth

In addition to having today's students understand that they will be tomorrow's space work force, I share real science and insights into what to expect when working out in space. There are exercises and personal practices which will lead to the development of the skills necessary to becoming one of the next-generation of space travelers from Planet Earth.

Tomorrow's space work force will not be dependent on physical capacity, or good looks, or gender or race or religion or preference or nationality, or military service, or even academic success. Tomorrow's space force qualifiers will all be on whether or not you can you get the job done better than your peers.

You must know that The Astronaut Instruction Manual for Pre-Teens is not like other pre-teen kids book. I believe the reason my quest to encourage kids to pursue careers in astronautics and space-science-related fields is so well received by my audiences—including grown-ups—because I challenge the thinking of young students. Young people appreciate this, and so do adults. Of course, any kind of astronaut instruction manual that did not challenge young students would have to be a fake. Students would know it. Grown-ups would know it. Importantly, the core message to young persons is one of focus, diligence, patience, and self belief.

[The Astronaut Instruction Manual excerpt:]
You are going to have to study with dedication
the school subjects you love best, 
and to be well-studied even on subjects you love less. 
And most importantly, 
you are going to have to get your own mind ready for space 
because YOU are going to live in outer space. 
In other words, 
to make you ready for living in space, 
we are going to use tools of the mind.

In fact, I submit that the very skills required to survive and thrive off-planet and in space are the same skills required to succeed Earth-side. Ironically, I think the lessons are rather… grounding.

Plus: ART 
Illustrations by (robot dinosaur) FAKEGRIMLOCK!

Books to inspire young minds must have engaging artwork. And a book to inspire young students to pursue careers in space especially so. The artwork must be fun, memorable, and it must connect!

To hold the attention of a 9-12 year old, you have got to make art that speaks to a 9-12 year old's experience. 

You have to think sharks, ninjas, radiation, explosions, superpowers, lasers, volcanos, and of course, giant super-powered robot dinosaurs.

I am happy to report we will be using the fantastically engaging (and similarly licensed) illustrations by the amazingly talented and most very internet-renowned artist thinker & giant super-powered robot dinosaur, FAKEGRIMLOCK! As The Astronaut Instrucion Manual for Pre-Teens is being published with a Creative Commons share-alike license, having FAKEGRIMLOCK's illustrations amplify the book's message only increases its accessibility and reach. 

Blastoff!

Today's students must be met on their own terms. Humankind is readying now for our next big venture to space. And The Astronaut Instruction Manual for Pre-Teens is the astronaut instruction manual that gets the job done.

Young people today have an opportunity unlike any that has come before. Most of us never had any teacher tell us of a future where we could live, work, an play in space (much less had in our possession an actual manual how to do so).

That is about to change. By pointing the way to an inspiring space future, we can affect change in the world one student at a time. Which is why I am asking you to support our campaign for The Astronaut Instruction Manual for Pre-Teens, or Mike Mongo's HUMANNAIRES!

Thank you and keep up the good work,
Mike Mongo
astronaut teacher