CANADIAN ASTRONAUT'S MARTIANS

FIRST TO RED PLANET will become Martians, said Canadian astronaut.

Astronauts travelling space on the long trip to MARS will not have the usual backup from the  mission control  on Earth and will need to think of themselves as Martians  to survive.

Canada's most famous spaceman half-jokingly said Friday.

Current predictions are that humans will reach Mars - up to 400 million kilometers [250 million miles from Earth - in the coming decades.

But the vast distance  means communications with mission control would be delayed by up to 22 minutes.

As a result, astronauts would need to be self-reliant on the voyage, which clocks in at  2.5 years  round trip in travel time alone.

''If I were a commander of that crew as soon as the Earth started fading in the rearview mirror, I would get the crew together and say :

' We are no longer  Earthlings, we are now Martians. That's who we are. We need to redefine our relationship with the planet that birthed us,'' former astronaut Chris Hadfield said.

''It's going to be very difficult not having Mother Earth  next to you and it's going to be really important for the crew to define who they are as the most explorers in human history,'' he said.

In the coming months, Canada will launch three satellites, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques will travel to the  ISS , and NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission to study an asteroid will blast off carrying Canadian sensors. [AFP]