A 9 year old boy wrote Elon Musk a letter asking if he could be one of the first people to live on Mars. The letter was written in pencil on lined notebook paper. The spelling was imperfect. The plan was detailed. He had calculated (incorrectly, but sincerely) how many days the trip would take. He had drawn a floor plan of his Mars habitat. He had listed the supplies he would bring: "food, water, books, my dog." He asked if SpaceX could build a rocket big enough for his dog. The letter made it to Elon's desk through a chain of assistants who each decided independently that it should go higher. The last assistant to pass it on said she did so because the floor plan of the Mars habitat included a room labeled "for my mom so she doesn't miss me." Elon responded. Personally. The response was short and factual in his typical style, but included one line that the boy's mother shared publicly years later: "We are building the rocket. Keep drawing the plans." The boy is now a teenager. He is studying aerospace engineering. His mother said in an interview that the letter and the response are framed on his bedroom wall. The pencil drawing of a Mars habitat with a room for his mom sits next to a response from the man who is actually building the ship. The mission to Mars is sustained by billions of dollars, thousands of engineers, and decades of accumulated technology. It is also sustained by a 9 year old's pencil drawing that included a room for his mother and a question about whether the rocket could fit his dog. The technical problems will be solved by engineers. The reason to solve them is sitting in a frame on a teenager's wall.