File: Qiao, navigator, Ares One
—Supplemental—
Path to Ares: 58 Days to Launch
Beijing University
A/V Record

Student: Dean Qiao, thank you for answering all these questions about Ares One.

Qiao: No, thank you. I love it.

Student: Do you remember where you were when you first heard about the mission?

Qiao: Huh. I do remember where I was when I got the call. It wasn't called Ares then, of course. Until around launch day it was called Project Catamaran.

Anyway, my oldest daughter was applying to the university and we had flown in from our home in Sydney, to visit. We had lunch with some professors and afterwards we visited one of the dorms. Just over there. It's not there anymore. Thank god. It was an old dorm.

There were protests all over, that day. The Moon X cults were in full force, calling for all governments to combine.

I took the call in the drone we rented for the day. They wanted me to cut the visit short but I refused. They wanted me to be gone for a year and a half. They could wait until morning.