Island resident on shortlist to go to Mars and never come back

One woman from Sooke on Vancouver Island may be going on the trip of a lifetime.

30-year-old Marina Miral has been shortlisted to be one of about 40 people who will travel to Mars and never come back, in order to establish a human colony on the Red Planet.

If she is chosen as one of the 40 she will be leaving in about a decade.

“I didn’t believe it, I just read over it about five or six times,” says Miral about receiving the email she was still in the running. “All day yesterday I just had the hugest smile, my face hurt so bad when I went to bed.”

She says she made it really clear in her application that she would be very dedicated to the project if chosen.

The list for the Mars One Project has been whittled down from more than 200,000 applicants to just over 1,000. But there are still more than three rounds in the selection process, and it will be another two years before the final group is chosen.

“This is what I’ve always wanted to do really, probably since I was about 10 years old and first discovered Star Trek,” says Miral.

She says she is not phased by the idea that if she goes she will never come back to Earth.

“I guess this is just the closest I’m ever going to get to joining Starfleet Academy,” she says, “and that was always my dream.”