Sheikh Muszaphar raring for a shot at Mars exploration

KUANTAN, Tues:

Astronaut Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Sheikh Mustapha is raring to go on another space mission — and he has his eyes set on joining a two-year exploration to Mars.

"I don't mind even if it's a one-way ticket," he said in a special session with Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) staff and students at its campus here today.

Some might think that he was joking but Dr Sheikh Muszaphar stressed that as an astronaut, he had to be ready for the worst as anything could happen in outer space.

He said the Russians were planning to send a manned spacecraft to the Red Planet.

It was reported that the launch date would be between 2016 and 2020 and the Mars probe would carry a crew of four to five cosmonauts. Russia has already extended an invitation to Malaysia to take part in the training programme where six volunteers would be selected from the international space community.

The selected candidates will live and work in a special complex for between 500 and 700 days, communicating with the outside world only via e-mail. The distance from Mars — which is the fourth planet from the sun — ranges between 55.7 million to 401.3 million kilometres from Earth, depending on the position of both planets in orbit to the sun. The astronauts will have to endure a 250-day journey to reach the planet from Earth.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar told the packed lecture hall that Malaysia should continue to promote space exploration as it had been proven to spur the younger generations to excel in their studies, especially in science and mathematics.