Tim Peake, a former army major, will become the second British astronaut who will make a journey to the International Space Station. He hopes that his mission will be an inspiration for several young British residents for Mars mission.

The 43-year-old will be sent to ISS on a six-month long mission for the European Space Agency (ESA) in December. Peake will be the first British astronauts to travel to ISS after Helen Sharman who travelled on a Soviet spacecraft for eight days in 1991.

Peake recently told reporters that he is not at all worried about anything but about his out-of-this-world Christmas dinner. "I have heard a Christmas pudding is making its way to the space station, I will be enjoying that", he said.

He said it will be almost after 24 years after Helen Sharman flew to the Mir space station when the Union Jack flag will be flown in space. He also said that now nothing can stop the school kids in Great Britain from being the first ones to step on Mars.

He told that during his mission to ISS he will be carrying out several scientific experiments, some of those will include medical research where he would be a 'human guinea pig', he said.

Peake will be launched from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. E will be working on a mission titled Principia after Isaac Newton's ground-breaking Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

Peake will be accompanied by US astronaut Tim Kopra and will be captained by experienced Russian Yuri Malenchenko, who has already completed five missions.