Community High sophomore, Mori Ono, has been interested in space ever since he was old enough to understand it. Ono’s lifelong obsession lead him to start the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, or SEDS, club at Community High. SEDS is part of an international organization, and it mainly consists of universities, however, there has recently been a push to open more High School chapters, like the one at CHS.

In the spring, Ono competed in NASA’s Ames Space Settlement contest, where students from around the globe submit their space settlement ideas. Ono won in the 9th-grade individual category.  Because of his win, Ono was invited to the International Space Development Conference. There, Ono met some of his personal heroes, including the Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. He also met the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, and famous physicist Freeman Dyson.

“[Space] is truly the final frontier,” Ono said. “Humankind has much to discover about space and I think it is imperative for humanity to keep expanding and to learn more and know more about the universe. I believe space colonization will result in humanity gaining much greater access to resources and we might be able to move past scarcity if that happens.”

Despite this, Ono is still concerned about the safety of space exploration and does not want to go into space until it becomes much safer.

SEDS  was founded in Sept. 1980 by MIT student Peter Diamandis, Yale student Richard Sorkin and Princeton student Scott Scharfman. Their first meeting was held a month and a half later on Oct. 30. Today, SEDS is the biggest student-run space organization in the world, with chapters in countries around the globe including locations in Israel, Canada, India, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin was a student leader of SEDS when he was a student at Princeton. Later Bezos would donate money to the organization.

At the SEDS club, you have the opportunity to discuss space, attend events, like movie nights, and work on projects like launching miniature rockets into the sky and building telescopes.

Ono hopes to be a part of the development of space in the future “My vision is to help mankind progress forward.” Ono said. “And I think space exploration and settling is going to be one of the main ways that humanity is going to move forward ”

If you’re interested in joining SEDS, head to Liz’s room (room 314) on Thursdays from 2:30 to 3:30.