Mazda Rebels with a Cause Are Changing the World and Outer Space
Have you ever dreamed about going into space? You can make it possible.
Photo: Mazda Rebels, part of the Mazda community
The Mazda Rebels with a Cause are turning their dreams into realities. By providing an online open space for everyday visionaries to share their ideas, Mazda is supporting a community that’s inspiring minds and moving hearts.
There are dozens of inspiring stories on the Mazda Rebels website from several different visionaries, including author Jochen Manz, whose photographs in Hiroshima Rising tells stories of Mazda’s hometown; inventor Cesar Harada, who created a robotic sailboat to clean up the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill; and programmers Ryan and Hays Halladay, creators of an app that produces unique music based on the location of its user.
One story which is garnering attention involves Cameron Smith, an archaeologist dedicated to making it cheaper and easier for average individuals to go into space.
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Mazda Rebels with a Cause Include Common Man Astronaut
Meet Cameron Smith, an ordinary and extraordinary astronaut
Photo: Mazda Rebels, part of the Mazda community
Forty-five-year-old Cameron Smith realized he couldn’t join NASA to become an astronaut because of his poor eyesight. But instead of giving up his dream of going into space, he decided to take the first step himself: building a hand-stitched spacesuit in his apartment.
He has gathered half a dozen student volunteers from Portland State University, where Smith works, who all believe–like Smith–that “space colonization is a rational way to give an insurance policy for our species.” The hard-working visionary has tested the spacesuit in altitude evaluations 18,000 feet in the air, an underwater leak detection, and a thermal test in subzero temperatures.
The spacesuit aced all three challenges.
Smith is showing that it’s possible for someone who’s not an official astronaut to still follow his dreams into the sky. His spacesuit took nearly 60 months to build and cost $5,000, but he intends to perfect the process and find a way to build one for $1,000.
Watch this common man become an astronaut in “Come Fly With Us”–part of Mazda’s “Challenge Convention to Make This Better” film series–below:
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