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CALGARY- A woman with quite the story hopes her next chapter will be about an experience that’s literally out of this world.

Calgary’s Kayla Bonham has made the shortlist to take part in a one-way mission to Mars. The plan is for a crew of four to leave every two years—making them the first humans to ever set foot on the red planet.

Bonham’s fascination with space began during the Apollo 11 mission.

“We were having a family dinner, I was glued to the TV,” she remembers. “Everyone recognized it was important.”

Being selected for a space mission would be another incredible journey for Bonham, who started her life as a male.

“That was one of my things growing up, because I knew my variant gender. I thought, ‘they don’t take queers into space, you can’t be odd like that’—and as it turns out, you could!”

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Having successfully undergone gender reassignment surgery, Bonham feels her journey has prepared her for a new adventure.

“I had to give up my established life. I took the leap of faith that things will be better once I’m on the other side because you can’t go back once you do a gender change. That level of commitment is similar to changing your life yet again, and I’ve had that experience.”

Bonham is also qualified to help potentially start a new life on the red planet. Not only is she an inventor, but she’s also always had a key interest in sciences, and has a basic understanding of languages like French, German, Russian and Chinese.

That’s helped her make it past the first cut.

“It’s pretty amazing that people can be who they are, and more open. Society has advanced, there’s much less stigma attached to being different.

“LGBTQ is okay in space, too.” Tweet This

75 Canadians are on the shortlist for the mission. The private company funding the mission received more than 200,000 applications from around the world, and has whittled the list down to just over 1,000 people.