Three years ago, astrobiologist Loretta Hidalgo had a career-changing realization: her work was ahead of its time. The research she was interested in—studying how to support human life in space—simply didn’t exist, she says. At the time, Ms. Hidalgo was studying bacteria in graduate school at the California Institute of Technology. Before that, she had worked at NASA’s JohnsonSpaceCenter in Houston, and at NASA Ames in Moffet Field, California, where she researched arctic plants and studied the possibility of building greenhouses on Mars.

JohnsonCenter,

All along, what she really wanted to do was figure out how to grow food in space, and how to cycle air and water to sustain a crew in space. At the rate that space science was evolving, that research wouldn’t be needed during her career. So she decided to “get out of the car and push,” she says. She left Caltech with her master’s degree and became a “space activist,” helping the push to get private citizens into space.

Ms. Hidalgo, 31, is the president of the Space Generation Foundation, an all-volunteer nonprofit that promotes involvement in space and space training. The foundation holds a number of outreach and educational programs, and is probably best known for starting Yuri’s Night, a party for space celebrated in 30 different countries every April 12.

Last year, she worked for the X Prize Foundation to help organize the distribution of a $10-million prize to inspire a private team to make two trips into sub-orbital space within 14 days. (Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and financed by Paul Allen, won the money.) Ms. Hidalgo is also a flight attendant for Zero Gravity, a company that offers people zero-gravity experiences on a 727 cargo jet.

Hidalgo

She still hopes to work in a food-growth lab in space one day, and eventually start her own space company. For now, she’s pushing the space pace while planning a wedding with her fiancé, George Whitesides, executive director of the National Space Club. Red Herring spoke with Ms. Hidalgo about commercial space travel, science fiction, and aliens.

Hidalgo

Is there life on other planets?

Yes. It’s only a matter of time before we find life in space. We’ve got a whole universe to look for planets in, and we’ve only just looked around the house.

Why do you think humans will live in space?

There’s a lot of interest in the private sector. Internet millionaires are investing their own capital into rockets and space technology.One of my colleagues, Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal [CEO of Space Exploration Technologies], is really active in the space community, and he describes his motivation as “creating a backup for the biosphere.”

What will be the most important part of your job in 10 years?

Training the next generation of space leaders.

Coolest thing on your bedroom wall as a kid:

Glow-in-the dark stars, which I put around the room—on walls, bookshelves, and strings to give it depth—in constellations to make a planetarium effect.

What is the Next Big Thing?

Point-to-point suborbital transportation. With space flights, we’ll be able to get from continent to continent in an hour. It will definitely make the world smaller.

Favorite space word:

Alt Space, a new term used to describe the alternative space community of small, innovative commercial space companies and eccentric Internet millionaires who are taking space into their own hands with a lot of style and flair.

Favorite space movie:

Favorite space movie

The original Star Wars, hands down.

Star Wars

Favorite misunderstanding about space:

The “dark side of the moon” is technically not dark. We never see the back of the moon because it is always facing Earth, but the sun does shine on it.