Part 1: Welcome to Planet Python — Your First Mission

The Adventures of Ava the Astronaut: Learning Python One Planet at a Time

A New Adventure Begins

Meet Ava, a 12-year-old with a big imagination and an even bigger dream: to explore the vast, glittering universe. One rainy afternoon, while exploring her school’s dusty attic, she stumbled upon an old, forgotten telescope. But this was no ordinary telescope. Wires snaked from its base to an ancient-looking computer with a blinking cursor on a black screen.

A note beside it read:

“To travel the stars, you must speak their language. The language is Python.”

Ava’s heart raced. This was it — her chance to become an astronaut! She had found her spaceship, and the computer was its control panel. But what was “Python”? It sounded like a snake, but the note hinted it was a way to communicate with the stars.

What is Programming?

Imagine you have a friendly robot, but it only understands very specific instructions. You can’t just say, “Hey, make me a sandwich.” You have to tell it, step by step:

Pick up two slices of bread.
Place them on a plate.
Open the jar of peanut butter.
Scoop some peanut butter with a knife.
Spread it on one slice of bread.

That list of instructions is a program. Programming is simply the art of writing these step-by-step instructions for a computer to follow. The computer is your robot, and it will do exactly what you tell it to do — nothing more, nothing less. If you forget to tell it to close the peanut butter jar, it will leave it open forever!

And What is Python?

Just like people speak different languages (English, Spanish, Mandarin), we have different languages to talk to computers. Python is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. It is known for being easy to read and write, almost like plain English. It is used for everything from building websites and creating games to conducting scientific research for NASA and powering artificial intelligence.

For Ava, Python is the language that will power her spaceship and let her navigate the cosmos. And for you, it is the beginning of a journey that can take you anywhere you want to go in the world of technology.

Your First Mission: Send a Message to the Universe

Every great journey starts with a single step. For a programmer, that first step is often printing a message to the screen. It is a way of saying, “I’m here, and I’m in control!”

Ava needs to send her first signal to let the universe know she is ready. In Python, we use the print() command for this. Think of it as a spaceship’s radio transmitter — you give it a message, and it broadcasts it to the screen.

Let’s help Ava send her first message. In the black screen (which we call a terminal or console), type the following command and press Enter:

print("Hello, Universe!")

What happens?

The computer screen will immediately display:

Hello, Universe!

Congratulations! You have just written your first line of Python code. You told the computer to print the message “Hello, Universe!” and it listened. Ava’s message is now traveling through the digital stars.

Mission Debrief: Understanding the Code

Let’s break down that single line of code so we understand every piece of it.

Component	What It Is	What It Does
`print`	A function	A pre-built command that displays things on the screen.
`( )`	Parentheses	They hold the thing you want the function to work with (the argument).
`"Hello, Universe!"`	A string (the argument)	A piece of text. Strings are always wrapped in quotation marks (`"` or `'`).

So, the full line print("Hello, Universe!") means: “Use the print function to display the text Hello, Universe! on the screen.”

Mission Notes: Using Comments

As Ava’s missions get more complex, she will need to leave notes for herself in her code, so she remembers what each part does. In Python, we can write notes called comments. The computer ignores them completely — they are just for humans to read.

To write a comment, you simply start the line with a hash symbol (#).

# This is my first message to the universe.
# The print() function will display it on the screen.
print("Hello, Universe!")  # This part sends the actual message.

When you run this code, the output is still just Hello, Universe!. The lines starting with # are completely invisible to the computer. Good astronauts — and good programmers — always leave clear notes!

Mini-Project: Your Own Space Greeting Card

Now it is your turn to be the astronaut. Your mission is to create a simple “Space Greeting Card” using what you have learned. Use multiple print() statements to design a card with text and maybe even some simple art using keyboard characters!

Here is an example to get you started. Try to make your own version!

# My first space greeting card!

print("****************************************")
print("*       Welcome to the Cosmos!         *")
print("*                                      *")
print("*    From,                              *")
print("*    Commander [Your Name Here]         *")
print("*                                      *")
print("*    *    .      o    .    *      .     *")
print("*  .    o      .     *      .   o       *")
print("****************************************")

Challenge: Can you add more lines to your card? Maybe include the current date, your favorite planet, or a fun space fact!

Mission Complete!

You have taken your first step into a larger world. You learned what programming and Python are, sent your first message with print(), and left notes with comments. The telescope is humming, and a new star on its map has started to glow. A new planet is waiting.

In our next adventure, we will visit the “Planet of Memory Vaults” to learn how to store and manage information for our journey using Variables and Data Types! Stay tuned!

This is Part 1 of a 10-part series: “The Adventures of Ava the Astronaut: Learning Python One Planet at a Time.”