SHIPYARD SPOTLIGHT 16 THINGS YOU DIDN'T
Oscar Mathews
KNOW ABOUT
Oscar
1. My favorite colors are Corvette blue and Mars red. 2. If I had a superpower, it would be to travel wherever I want. 3. Right now, my favorite movie is Interstellar. 4. I'm a Leo. 5. My favorite TV show of all time is Star Trek: the Next Generation. 6. The most played song on my iPod is probably by Muse or maybe Nirvana. 7. I’m a lapsed trumpet player. I also dabbled in violin, piano, and guitar. 8. My favorite food is Paella. 9. My favorite place to visit is Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. It’s outrageously beautiful. 10. I’m a little embarrassed to admit I love Star Trek. 11. I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut. 12. My celebrity crush is either Kiera Knightley or Natalie Portman. 13. My motto is “Never give up.” 14. My least favorite chore is folding my clothes. 15. If they make a movie about my life, Tom Cruise would play me. 16. In four words, I’m driven, passionate, impatient, and visionary.
18 • SERVICE TO THE FLEET • MAY 2015
A Mission of Optimism By ANNA TAYLOR • PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST Oscar Mathews is a Navy Lieutenant Commander, an Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. student, and an aspiring Martian. His dream is to be one of the first 24 humans to colonize Mars, a seemingly far-fetched fantasy that may actually be possible as early as 2026, thanks to an organization called Mars One. Mars One is a not-for-profit foundation with the goal of establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars. The first unmanned mission is scheduled to depart in 2020, followed by the first four-person crews two years later. More than 200,000 people began the application for the training program, a number that has been whittled down to 100 through a measured selection process and will be reduced to 24 later this year. So what inspires a man to trade his home on the banks of the Nansemond River for the faraway isolation of a cold alien planet? The dream began when he was a child. Mathews, a Nuclear Engineer in the Nuclear Engineering and Planning Department’s Reactor Support Branch (Code 2310.1), was born in Madrid, Spain, and moved to Texas when he was five. At the age of 18, Mathews was naturalized an American citizen, allowing a future in the U.S. Armed Forces. His family’s military tradition kindled his passion for aviation, but
Mathews gives most of the credit to a certain TV show for fostering his love of space. “My dad worked on aircraft and my granddad was in the Air Force as well,” he said. “We always went to air shows, I was always around jets, but I got interested in space through Star Trek. I loved the idea of being able to fly anywhere, just punch in the coordinates and go.” That same love of adventure and freedom led him to earn his private pilot’s license and SCUBA certification. Mathews graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 2004 and served in the military for five years. In 2011, once Mathews had completed his master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, he attended a career fair where NAVSEA was recruiting, and after being convinced that submarines are a lot like spacecraft, he found himself starting work at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY). In 2013, Mathews “felt a call back to service,” and joined the Navy Reserves to further his experience in aerospace. Mars One’s plans were publicly announced in 2012. “When it first came out, it made sense to me,” said Mathews. “Everybody’s been talking about going to Mars soon, yet it’s always been 50 years away. One reason NASA’s plan continuously gets