Will Robinson is ready to go to space.
Maxwell Jenkins, the young actor who has played the character Will Robinson in the Netflix reboot of "Lost in Space" since it premiered in 2018, is fascinated by real-life spaceflight. In an interview with Space.com ahead of the show's third and final season, which drops Dec. 1, Jenkins revealed his love for science and his desire to fly to space one day.
"Personally, I would love to go to space," Jenkins told Space.com. "I want to go to space as soon as possible."
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"I was a diehard sci-fi fan and space nerd before 'Lost in Space,' and I will be long after," Jenkins said.
Jenkins added that his love for spaceflight has grown over the past few years and, as the show has progressed, he's followed new developments being made in human spaceflight.
"We started 'Lost in Space' before people were sending normal people to space," he said. "And within the course of like four and a half years, five years, you know, regular civilians like me and my friends have gone to space ... quite frankly, it's kind of mind-boggling, seeing all these advancements being made."
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Within just the past six months, the first all-civilian mission to launch to Earth orbit, Inspiration4, lifted off for a three-day orbital journey aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. This flight happened shortly after both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin flew "regular civilians" to suborbital space and back on short tourist trips.
"It's kind of a crazy time to be living in," Jenkins said.
"I never really thought it would be possible for me to go to space," he said, pointing out how, until now, only professional astronauts, or astronauts who fly to space with agencies like NASA, really existed (with just a few exceptions). "But to go to space doesn't seem that foreign anymore. It doesn't seem that impossible."
He added that he and the crew had previously discussed what it might be like to film something like "Lost in Space" or another television show in outer space on a SpaceX mission or aboard an orbiting lab like the International Space Station.
"I would love to film something up in space, or at least be there," he said. But, Jenkins added, that dream doesn't stop in orbit around our planet. "[I would love to] step foot on Mars. I mean, it would be a dream come true to take a step on another planet," he said.
He also has ideas about the folks he'd like to fly with — well-rounded people whose merits can't necessarily be gauged by a standardized test.
"I think valuing, you know, test scores over the quality of a human is never the right way to do things," he said. "I think if anybody is going to go to space ... I would put my life in the hands of somebody who has empathy and is kind and values human life over a test score."
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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