When the Mars One project was announced in 2012, Dianne McGrath jumped at the chance to be one of the ordinary people who would go to the red planet and never come back.
She was one of seven Australians to make the final 100 candidates and spent years preparing herself for a one-way journey to another planet.
But the project collapsed in 2019, so now Dianne is doing the next best thing — circumnavigating the Earth.
To do that she will spend 11 months on the ocean, racing across the seven seas in the Clipper Round The World Yacht race.
Call of the unknown
Many space experts predicted the Mars One project would never get off the ground.
But more than 200,000 people from around the globe applied to live the rest of their lives on another planet.
Dianne, now 53, was one of them.
"I thought 'why not? What's the worst that could happen?'," she said.
"I guess a lot of bad things could happen … but it's a balance, isn't it?
"I love being challenged and pushed outside my comfort zone."
That same desire for adventure is leading Dianne on a race around the world on a 21-metre sailing yacht, with up to 23 other people, for almost a year.
As a crew member circumnavigating the globe, Dianne will spend up to 37 days at a time at sea, sailing, eating, and sleeping.
Shipmates are split into two watches, taking turns manning the helm, trimming the sails, navigating, keeping a lookout, collecting data, maintaining the ship's log, doing maintenance, and cooking and cleaning for four to six hours at a time.
The voyage will take them to every continent in the world, except Antarctica.
The longest and most challenging leg will be towards the end of the the journey.
It is known as the North Pacific Ocean Crossing from China to the west coast of America, a journey of 12,300 kilometres (or 6,600 nautical miles).
"Not too many people have done a North Pacific crossing," Dianne said.
"And, in fact, when it comes to a whole circumnavigation there are more people who have climbed Mount Everest than have circumnavigated this planet."
Seeking sustainability
When she is not chasing adventure Dianne works to promote sustainable living.
That expertise will be front of mind when she sets sail from the UK in September.
About nine billion tonnes of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, and 5-13 million tonnes of it are estimated to end up in the oceans every year.
Nearly 700 species of marine animals eat or get caught in plastic rubbish.
"We hear about the plastics in our oceans, we hear about how climate change is affecting our oceans, but we aren't seeing it," Dianne said.
"So I wanted to see it and share that vision with the rest of the world while I'm doing this race.
"Hopefully that will inspire people to maybe pick up three bits of rubbish next time they're at the beach, on the river, or just when they're out and about, and that can help us protect our planet."
Step for mankind
It was the opportunity to be part of developing more sustainable practises that that pulled Dianne towards Mars too.
"A one-way mission to Mars meant it had to be fully sustainable," she said.
"You can't just resupply if you run out of fertilisers, there's no Bunnings at the next crater. You have really got to work with what you've got."
They would have had to grow all their own food, rely entirely on renewable energy, and recycle and reuse all their water.
"Mars would be like a microcosm of what we have here on Earth," she said.
"We would have had to invent and test all that technology and those systems here on this planet first before we sent anything to Mars to ensure it would work.
"So I thought I could be part of doing this huge thing for mankind by trying to go to Mars and live sustainably and we could potentially help ourselves here on this planet too."
If the opportunity to go to Mars came up again, Dianne would jump at the chance.
"It was really disappointing when I first found out that we weren't going," she said.
"I spent eight years getting ready."
She trained herself mentally and physically, reversed a vision impairment, increased her biomass, and learned about the systems she might use on the mission.
"I did all of this stuff to make me 100 per cent ready to go to Mars years before I needed to be," she said.
"So if they pressed the button to 'play' again, sure, absolutely, I'd go to Mars."
Challenge yourself
Setting big goals like sailing around the world, or going to Mars, makes Dianne excited, nervous, and terrified.
That is why she does it.
"I'd just like to encourage people to think about doing something adventurous for themselves," she said.
"There's so much positive scientific research about when we do something that's a bit brave and different for ourselves — whether that's joining a new community group, learning a new language, trying a new job, whatever it is — we become more resilient and we end up with a better positive outlook on life.
"So why not?"
