Casablanca- Big dreams are not impossible! Do you remember Karim El Tahiri, one of two Moroccans who applied for Mars One? Well, he has been picked in the pre-selection phase.
Karim El Tahiri, one of the two Moroccans who applied to Mars One, a project developed by a non-profit organization that seeks to establish a permanent human colony on Mars by 2023, has been selected among 202.586 candidates who had also applied via application videos on the project’s official website.
The 19-year-old Moroccan space fan is among 1.057 candidates, representing 140 different countries, who will still go through a final test before the 24 lucky applicants who will set feet on the red planet are chosen.
According to daily Al Alam, Karim has already started the preparations for the test—daily workout, a strict diet aimed at reinforcing his immune system along with adequate mental preparation. If selected, he will set feet on Mars at the age of 30.
“I don’t mind going there without return,” Al Alam quotes Karim. “If I’m selected to live on Mars, then Mars would be my new planet.”
Karim does not mind living away from his family, something he says he’s been accustomed to since he already studies Canada, away from them. “We sometimes need to go away to make our dreams come true,” he explained. “And it’s never a last farewell.”
The young man seems to have everything figured out, including his religious practices. “Once in Mars, I will pray the same way I do here on Earth, since Mars also takes 24 hours to spin around itself.”
Rajaa Aloiza, a 21-year old girl from Marrakech, was the other Moroccan who applied for Mars One, but Karim is the only Moroccan who made it to the final phase of the selection process.
For Karim El Tahiri, a 19-year old Moroccan who lives in Canada, where he attends an academic health program, going to space has been a childhood dream. Karim is also for the idea of “finding new homes on new planets.”
While the project sounds too far-fetched to be realizable, the project planners appear to have studied the slightest detail about it, from how to manufacture water on Mars without depending on Earth, to how to deal with dangerous space radiations that may result in cancer.
The lucky future astronauts selected to be part of the venture are expected to go through eight-year training in a secret location on Earth. They will learn how to fix habitat structures, grow vegetables in limited spaces and be able to deal with both customary and serious medical issues.
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