12 Ways to Get a Ticket to Space

Discover the many exciting ways that we could travel to space, now and in the future, with this colorful fact file for budding astronauts and space tourists.

Space travel has never been so accessible, with NASA even aiming to land humans on Mars in the 2030s. This book is a launchpad for the curiosity and intrepid nature that any young space traveler will need to have in our solar system and beyond.

Learn all about the ways humans go to space today and how we’ll likely live there decades from now, with these twelve fascinating ’tickets’:

1. Fly in a space balloon
2. Ride on a spaceplane
3. Build your own rocket
4. Win the space lottery
5. Become an astronaut pilot
6. Be a science mission specialist
7. Get sponsored to go to space
8. Work as a space engineer
9. Visit the Moon as a space tourist
10. Volunteer to colonize Mars
11. Launch your personal time capsule into space, and
12. Send a message on a beam of light to travel forever among the stars!

Ripped-from-the-headlines STEM content meets creative, accessible ways to bring space to you across these twelve illustrated, four-page scenarios. You’ll also explore the International Space Station with a detailed cutaway map, visit a gallery of iconic rockets, and find out what it takes to be a real-life star-sailor at the astronaut training academy. Plus, at the Astronaut Hall of Fame, marvel at the achievements of explorers past--and milestones that could be reached in your lifetime.

When you’re finished with the tickets, start planning your journey to space with tips and prompts on how to prepare, such as riding a roller coaster to get used to zero-g, camping out beneath the stars, and designing your rocket, space station, or lunar base.

With Terri Po’s whizz-bang illustrations of rockets, space stations, EVA suits, satellites and much, much more, 12 Ways to Get a Ticket to Space brings space travel within young readers’ orbit, and lets them experience something that may one day be their reality.

Kate Peridot writes wild and adventurous children’s fiction and non-fiction about animals, people, and STEM that encourage a can-do spirit, a quest for knowledge, and a sense of adventure. Her immersive storytelling techniques inspire and enthral young readers and their parents and teachers, too. Kate’s research skills were honed by a love of books, studying for an international business degree, working as a marketer for food companies, and then as a freelance writer. In 2014, her children’s story, The Elephant Carnival, won a Walker Books Animal Stories competition for 4-7-year-olds. Kate also won the First Chapter of a Novel competition at the Winchester Literary Festival for a YA concept.

Terri Po creates editorial illustrations, infographics, and illustrated books, as well as doing live graphic facilitation. Her books include Spies (Faber & Faber, 2023), How the News Works (Templar, 2024), and 12 Ways to Get a Ticket to Space (Wide Eyed Editions, 2024).