Physicist, Explosives Engineer, Soldier, Comedian, Astronaut Candidate, Cave Diver – one thing Josh Richards can never be accused of is being boring.

After a decade of picking up booby traps with the Australian Army, slogging through mud with British Commandos, being science adviser to the richest artist in the world, and performing comedy wearing a giant koala suit to confused audiences around the world, Josh decided to take on the final frontier – applying for a one-way mission to Mars. Selected from over 200,000 initial applicants to the Mars One project, Josh was shortlisted as one of 100 astronaut candidates launching to the red planet in 2031.

As an in-demand professional speaker and comedian, Josh’s storytelling makes for compelling & entertaining corporate keynote presentations on leadership, small-team dynamics, and the challenges of life in space that are certain to leave any audience with plenty to think about. With a natural talent for sharing science through stand-up comedy, he’s a passionate and highly-visible ambassador for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) education, and his public science events and school visits inspire people of all ages to engage with science and discover the sky is not the limit.

With the shuttering of the Mars One project in late 2021, Josh’s focus shifted to another lifelong dream – exploring inner space by crawling over rocks, through mud, and swimming kilometres underground to explore and survey the water-filled karst systems of Australia as an exploration cave diver. His passion for discovering more about the universe remains only equalled by his desire to share it on stage and on paper. Besides regularly writing articles on space science, engineering, psychology and culture on Patreon, he’s also the author of Becoming Martian (a humorous look at how colonising Mars will change our species in body, mind and soul), Cosmic Nomad (an uncomfortably personal but deeply funny exploration of how signing up for a one-way mission to Mars will ruin your life), and an upcoming book on the weird and wonderful ways humans try to come to terms with death.

Speaking Topics include:

• Leadership
• High-Performance Teams
• Sustainability
• Future of Work
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Innovation & Creativity
• Futurism
• Science & Technology
• Motivational Speaking
• Education
• Military