Pakistani Ex-Military Pilot Among 100 Shortlisted For Mars Mission

Dunya News-Pakistani ex-military pilot among... by dunyanews

Reginald Foulds, ex-military pilot from Pakistan Army Aviation Corps, currently living in Canada post-retirement, has been shortlisted in the Mars-One round three astronaut candidates along with 99 others.

Mr. Foulds, who was in the news last year when he got into the thousand man strong pool of contenders for the mission to Mars, has passed the criteria set for the qualification into the next round.

Currently working as Emergency Operations Officer for the government of Canada, Reginald Foulds is Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) qualified.

Father of two children, Reginald in his own words is ‘a 58 years young, fearless, motivated experienced person’.

The current pool of 100 personnel will be cut down to size of 24 in the next phase as the Dutch company which sponsors the project ‘Mars One’, will assemble the persons into teams of four and send them abroad on a yearly basis.

The expedition to mars, which is a one way trip, takes nearly 6 months travel from Earth.

Naysayers, which now include experts from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), claim that with the current level of technology the life span of the people is expected to last only 68 days after the land on the red planet.

Reginald, however, is undeterred by the prospect of high fatality rate.

“The worst that could happen is death, Being an ex-soldier, I have seen death many a times from the corner of my eyes," he said, "it did not scare me then and it doesn t scare me now to take a flight to Mars and live there for the rest of my life."

Mr. Reginald would be nearing 70 years when the project materializes and the shuttle system goes live.