How Jaxon Won the Shanghai Public Speaking and Debating Championships

"When you were younger, how many of you were interested in space and moon exploration? If you were, raise your hand."

- Jaxon Xie, Shanghai Public Speaking Champion

Contestant Jaxon Xie chose July 20, 1969, the day Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, taking "one giant leap for mankind." He not only wants to witness when history happens, but also wants to be someone who makes history. If possible, he hopes to become a rocket designer, and use NASA's latest technology to improve the Apollo 11 spacecraft; if possible, he can design space exploration courses and teach the next generation of students how to get from the moon back to the earth.

Jaxon's Speech Transcript

"When you were younger, how many of you were interested in space and moon exploration? If you were, raise your hand.

Many of you probably were, and so was I. Children buy Lego and plastic models of spaceships and rockets, and dream about aliens and other galaxies. I even remember that the first Lego set that I built all by myself when I was five years old was a NASA space shuttle. I know for sure that some of you might have the same experience as me.

I played with it all the time and dreamed of landing it on Jupiter and imagined being an astronaut exploring dark craters on the moon and trekking the desolate sands of Mars. Later when I got older, I learned that on July 20th, 1969, on a Sunday, Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon.

He said the famous line that would be remembered in history; “That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”. This marked a glorious event in human history and created a landmark for technology to completely revolutionize.

You may know that in the Moon Landing, three astronauts had flown from Earth in a rocket to the moon. The journey took 109 hours. Upon landing, Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, with the astronauts “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins following behind. They deployed the TV camera for the transmission of the event to Earth, collected moon rock and dust samples, planted a flag of the United States, explored the moon, and measured moonquakes.

If I would have the chance to participate in this first moon landing event, I would like to be an astronaut that set foot on the moon land. Then I could have experienced all these things mentioned above. When I come back to earth, I will design a class including rocket propulsion, moon gravity, thrust and drag, astronaut training, orbital mechanics, and many other related knowledge to teach young kids about space exploration. Maybe one of my students would turn to the next Neil Armstrong who first set his/her foot on Mars.

If I would have the chance to participate in the first moon landing event, I would also like to be a rocket engineer that designed the Apollo 11 rocket. I could bring back advanced technology from the future NASA and SpaceX to help design a reusable rocket.  

As many of you may know, the rocket used at the first moon landing launch was just a one-time use rocket. That’s a huge waste of time, money, and work. I could participate in this event with future technology to design a reusable rocket. I would add features such as advanced navigation systems to land its way back to the launchpad, an ultracapacitor for energy boost, and a synthetic polymer covered with a thin layer of silicone to protect it from the hazards of outer space. 

The first moon landing was one of the most important events in history. I’d like to participate in this historical event either as an astronaut or as a rocket engineer. This is because I am extremely passionate about space exploration.  If I were an astronaut at that time, then I would gain the knowledge, design a class to teach the young generation to learn about space and the moon exploration; If I were a rocket engineer, then I could bring back new technology from the future to help them design a reusable rocket.

As I asked at the beginning of my speech, I know many of you had dreamed of being able to explore the space and moon. Although we all know that we could not really go back to experience the first moon landing event, we can learn from it, look forward, work hard and I believe that we will fulfill our dreams to reach the stars one day in the future."