Not content with exploring every corner of the Earth, Egypt's Omar Samra is now hard at work on his planned trip to space.
The well-known adventurer and mountaineer, who, full-disclosure, was my former employer, was celebrating on Monday as he announced the completion of his 20-year-long dream, The Adventurer’s Grand Slam. He skied to the North Pole last month.
The 37-year-old Samra is 33 rd person in the world, and the first Egyptian, to finish the Grand Slam challenge which comprises climbing the highest summit on all seven continents as well as skiing the last degree to the geographic South and North Poles.
"I encountered many challenges, especially during my North Pole trip," Samra said. "The weather was really cold [-33 Celsius], and in some areas we had to swim as we were travelling across the continent."
During his extensive travels, Samra learned to find the motivation within during the toughest phases of his voyages. Along his many years as an adventurer, he has also become a well-respected motivational speaker.
But to truly succeed, as the cliche goes, one must reach for the stars; a statement Samra seems to be taking literally.
In December 2013, Samra first announced that he was one of 23 winners in the Axe Apollo Space Academy competition, and would be going on “a free trip to the edge of space and back,” as Space.com puts it.
Samra explained that, "In order to accomplish this plan, we need to reach 103 km above sea level as a beginning to outer space."
Though the exact voyage date has not been set, Samra shared a clear plan for how he’ll be spending the upcoming year and a half before the trip expected to occur at the end of 2016.
While he may be the only Egyptian traveling to the edge of space, Samra was keen to invite students throughout Egypt to compete and contribute to the voyage by having an experiment of theirs go into outer space.
In collaboration with the science department of the California-based company, XCOR, the winning science experiment idea will be tested on the shuttle. In order to select the science experiment idea, Samra will tour all 28 Egyptian governorates and visit nearly 100 different schools.
"The experiment should be about very simple ideas," he said. "So we will be holding a competition for all students at the schools I will be visiting to pick the best experiment and to actually take it on our trip."
Among the attendees of the conference was Mohammed Sallam, the only Egyptian finalist on the Mars One mission who commented that, “Wherever I go, people talk to me about the pharaohs," adding: "Now our generation needs to do something to make the whole world proud of Egypt."