Taranjeet Singh Bhatia is the first Sikh name put forward to become the first humans to step foot on the Red Planet.
More than 200,000 people applied for the controversial privately-funded mission that organisers have estimated will cost six billion dollars and is set to be filmed for a reality television series.
The Mars 100 Round Three candidates include 50 men and 50 women with 39 from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, 7 from Africa, and 7 from Oceania.
Taranjeet Singh Bhatia, 29, a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Central Florida, is among the three Indian hopefuls, who will move on to the next round of an ambitious private mission that aims to send four people on a one-way trip to Mars in 2024.
Taranjeet said, “All my life I always wanted to be involved in space missions. As a child, I spent hundreds of nights, gazing at the sky and always wanted aliens to abduct and take me into space.”
In an interview with Centric, Taranjeet stated his faith in Sikhi offers a path for honest living and equal treatment for all people. “Being a Sikh, for me, is like a great fortune,” he said. “Everyone wants happiness in their life, and Sikhism taught everything related to happiness.”
The other two Indian candidates are Ritika Singh, 29, who lives in Dubai, and Shradha Prasad, 19, from Kerala.
SinghStation wishes Taranjeet Singh to win the final round-up selection as well to turn his dreams into reality.
