Like most people, Abigail Harrison has a big dream – to become an astronaut, and be the first person to walk on Mars. Humans are yet to set foot on the red planet (or indeed any planet beyond our own), but Harrison is on the right trajectory to do so – and her pathway to achieving this is the subject of her new book Dream Big: How to Reach for Your Stars.

Written primarily for young people, the book has a decidedly chatty tone. Indeed, at times it reads almost like a conversation with a friendly and knowledgeable career adviser. The book is also a practical guide, with exercises to help the reader to map their own plans, from conception through to fruition, using the processes Harrison herself has used and developed. “I got so much great advice and Dream Big is my way of passing that on to the next generation,” she says.

I got so much great advice and Dream Big is my way of passing that on to the next generation

The book opens by encouraging the reader to dream and to envision their future, as well as following up with practical advice – how to turn an idea into manageable steps, making plans, facing your fears and dealing with failure. There are, for example, chapters on being a “disruptor” – after all to be the first, one must push past social norms – and the importance of finding and being a role model.

Harrison’s dream, to be the first to walk on Mars, has been in the making since she was just five years old; but she’s been public about it since she was 13, setting herself up online as “Astronaut Abby”. Now 23, she has gained a wealth of experience, and Dream Big is peppered with inspirational stories from public figures, some of whom are further along their journeys in the growing space industry. They include Clayton Anderson, who is now a retired NASA astronaut, but in 2007 was a member of the ISS Expedition 15 crew. Despite his successes, Anderson was rejected by the astronaut programme 15 times, before finally succeeding in 1998. His story comes as part of an interesting chapter about dealing with and accepting failure as part of the process. It might be tempting to think that a book from a 23-year-old might not have much to teach the generations above her, but it’s possible to think of recent world leaders who might benefit from reading this chapter.

Dream Big is peppered with inspirational stories from public figures, some of whom are further along their journeys in the growing space industry

Other key figures in the book include climate-change activist Greta Thunberg, and the recently deceased US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While Thunberg is still working hard on her goal of changing the minds of politicians with regards to climate change, it’s fair to say that many lessons can be learned from the young activist’s achievements to date. Harrison has also had the opportunity to learn from pioneering mentors such as Buzz Aldrin; her book is infused with insight she has gained from them.

The chapter on facing and tackling fears is another one that readers of all ages could benefit from, as Harrison reminds us that successful people have often battled with anxieties and insecurities. She touches on examples from Abraham Lincoln’s fear of public speaking to her own fear of heights – not exactly ideal for an astronaut and pilot. She had to tackle this challenge head-on, learning from others who faced similar challenges. This chapter includes an exercise plotting out the worst thing that could happen and the concept of “chair flying”.

This visualization technique, popular in the aviation industry, involves sitting in a chair and imagining everything that could go wrong when piloting an aircraft. Harrison swears it has saved her life. While the technique might sound slightly odd, it is surprisingly at the heart of astronaut training. The reason why British astronaut Tim Peake remained calm when he experienced a last-minute glitch while docking his Soyuz capsule with the ISS is because he, like all astronauts, had already run through and trained for every single possible worst-case scenario, before stepping on board a rocket.

To wish to be the first person to set foot on Mars, one has to be relatively single-minded. To succeed in being chosen as the representative of humankind, one must seek to represent humanity and community – and this is central to much of the advice in the book. Finding your community, being part of it, finding support but also providing your own knowledge, skills and support to the community in return. Perhaps one of the most compelling chapters in Dream Big covers diversity and the importance of doing everything you can to enable those who don’t already have a “seat at the table”, and to be able to pull up a chair. As Harrison writes, “Kindness makes the world go round. Well not, literally of course (the world goes round because of conserved rotational energy from the protoplanetary disc that our solar system was formed out of), but figuratively, kindness is what it’s all about.”

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The long road to Mars

Harrison is multilingual, has worked in a NASA astrobiology lab, conducted research in Siberia and is an advanced scuba diver and pilot. She has delivered an address to Congress and co-founded the not-for-profit The Mars Generation. With Dream Big, she hopes to enable other young people to have similar achievements by the same age. If Harrison does achieve her ultimate goal of being the first person to walk on Mars, this book will become a collector’s item. If the contents of this book are anything to go by, she might well succeed.

• 2021 Philomel Books 304pp $12.99