In 1964, the world was in the middle of the Space Race between the United States and The Soviet Union to put the first man on the moon. However, during this time, a Southern African country called Zambia got its independence.
Under Zambia's new rulers, the head of the National Academy of Science, Edward Makuka Nkoloso, wanted to beat the United States and Russia at their own game by landing a Zambian on the surface of the moon first. But, after studying this further, he came to the conclusion that landing on the surface of Mars would be even more glorious!
Edward Makuka Nkoloso's motivation for his Zambian Mars project was to send a Christian missionary to spread the gospel to the "primitive Martians" who were believed to have inhabited the red planet. He specially trained a 17-year-old "spacegirl" to undergo this incredible journey – along with two cats!
During Nkoloso's public speech, he added: "But I have warned the missionary she must not force Christianity on the people of Mars if they do not want it".
And so his specialised training started for the Mars mission. His selected participants, which he called the "Afronauts", underwent sophisticated training, which involved rolling down a hill in a tin drum to simulate weightlessness and swinging on a rope swing to prepare the Afronauts for re-entry to Planet Earth.
Edward Makuka Nkoloso was devastated to find his Afronauts paying more attention to sexual activity than to Mars during the training, which ultimately lead his beloved "Spacegirl" to fall pregnant.
However, a few short years later, Nkoloso's dreams were crushed when he learned that the United States landed the first person on the surface of the moon, and his beloved Zambian Space Program came to a screeching halt!
Take a look at the video below by the YouTube channel, SideNote, on The Time When Zambia Tried To Go To Mars