Jasleen Kaur Josan
Jasleen Kaur Josan will be the first Sikh to travel to Mars, and among the first humans to travel to Mars.

WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — Jasleen Kaur Josan will be the first Sikh traveling to outer space and the first to visit Mars.

Josan is part of the two-way Orion Mission in 2030, which will see the crew members return to Earth. An earlier mission to Mars in 2020 will be a one-way colonization effort, so Josan will be among the very first humans to be on Mars. According to quotes attributed to Josan, it’ll take nine months to reach Mars, with three months being spent on the planet, while it’ll take another nine months to return. The mission will take 21-months to complete. She and the Orion crew will be the first humans to visit Mars.

The 25-year-old was named by NASA in collaboration with the International Space Education Institute as an International Space Ambassador in 2013 and chosen to be a researcher for NASA’s Orion Mission last year. “I do feel very proud to be part of such a mission.Technology is booming and things are going to change in another 15 years. It all depends on my capabilities and determination and how I take to these changes. I’m not nervous exactly, but just really excited and looking forward to what the future brings,” she stated in an article. With the introduction of many more companies such as Sent Into Space and more, offering education to children about the wonderful mysteries of space, the future seems bright for potential space lovers and astronauts.

Astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft will explore the asteroid that will be placed in orbit around Mars, returning to Earth with samples. The “experience in human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit will help NASA test new systems and capabilities, such as Solar Electric Propulsion, which we’ll need to send cargo as part of human missions to Mars,” states NASA. Developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s were goals outlined in the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and in the U.S. National Space Policy, also issued in 2010.

Born in Kurukshetra, Haryana, India, one of her inspirations is astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who was the first Indian woman to enter space in 1997.

Josan obtained her bachelor’s degree in aeronautical and aerospace from Sathyabama University in Chennai. In her second year studying there, she proposed her research on a Mars Mission to NASA — it was selected for an international conference by the American Society of Safety Engineers. She was invited to give an oral presentation at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando. She received the best presentation award. She is currently pursuing an integrated space science degree from the University of Alabama. She has been a NASA research scientist for over four years.