Liam Gunter of Russellville has lived in a lot of places in his 18 years -- Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina. But he's never been to the one place he knows he belongs: space.
"I will be the first person on Mars," Gunter said as an oversized brass wristwatch slid down his arm when he propped his elbows on the kitchen table at his rural residence, where he is home-schooled.
His parents, Jeanene and Bud Gunter, said space has always been on their son's radar, even since birth.
"Late at night, when we couldn't get him back to sleep, we'd wrap him up in his baby blanket and take him outside to look up at the stars," Jeanene Gunter said. "It worked every single time. He has never once altered his plans that he wants to go to space some day."
Cradling his chin between his palms, Gunter's blue eyes widened then narrowed as he leaned forward intently.
"But I know I can't get to space if I don't work at it," he said, using his pointer finger to punctuate his to-do list on the opposite hand.
Gunter can mark off at least one of those goals, however. He earned a 36 -- a perfect score -- on the ACT last month.
There were only six Arkansas students in 2013 who earned perfect ACT scores and only three so far this year for the state.
Nationally, only 1,162 of the 1.8 million test-takers in the Class of 2013 earned the top score, according to ACT statistics. The average national score was 20.9 for 2013, with Arkansas coming in at 20.2.
The teenager's accomplishment helped him get an elusive presidential scholarship from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
"It's the Harvard of the skies," he announced, matter-of-factly.
But brain power alone won't get him into space. It's going to take ingenuity, careful planning and an invention or two, Gunter said.
He briefly touched his hand to his chest before explaining that open-heart surgery in 2012 to implant an artificial aortic valve knocked him out of NASA's stringent astronaut qualifications.
"They will never let me fly," he said.
A roadblock to navigate around but not a mission-halter, Gunter assured.
Private enterprise is the way to make it happen, instead, he said. Specifically, he wants to establish his own space-exploration company that will allow him to make frequent trips to the moon and to Mars.
"He knows that the secret is that you've either got to create or invent the technology to get you there. He's ensuring himself a seat," Bud Gunter said.
And Liam Gunter said he already has the "heart thing" covered.
"Weightlessness has a degenerative effect on your heart, but artificial gravity will fix all of that," he said.
Tackling the artificial-gravity problem is just one of the experiments Gunter has conducted over the years -- including making rocket fuel in the kitchen sink of a friend's house.
"He has notebooks full of designs and notes. His brain is never idle," Jeanene Gunter said. "The more research he does, the more questions he has. If it doesn't work, then he reworks it."
The trick to making a perfect score on the ACT is to skip the study sessions, Gunter said.
"It was there, and I wanted to get it," he said of his perfect score. "But I wasn't going to beat myself up over it."
He did "nothing special" to prepare for the test and "nothing special" to celebrate the achievement, he said. He did, however, call his grandparents, Doyle and Dora Gunter, to give them the news.
"My grampa just said, 'Oh, that's great,'" he laughed. "My grampa doesn't show excitement, but my mimi made up for all his lack of enthusiasm."
Bud Gunter said he sometimes worries that his son -- who holds a black belt in Taekwondo, is a National Merit Scholar finalist and has already earned 19 credit hours at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville -- will put too much stress on himself in college.
His mother, however, said her youngest son has always been naturally driven and "just forges ahead and takes care of business."
"He's really an amazing kid. Even post-surgery, he never did less than 1,000 percent on his schoolwork," Jeanene Gunter said.
Gunter, who visited the Embry-Riddle campus earlier this year, said he's not worried about the pressure of attending such an elite college known for its rigorous curriculum.
"I don't often meet people who like the same things I do, but when I do, it's instant kinship," he said. "I'm not scared at all. You've got to know what you want to do, then set your path and stick to it."
Metro on 05/12/2014