Six researchers on a simulated flight to Mars finally have 'landed' there after spending more than 250 days in a series of locked steel tubes mimicking a spacecraft. The all-male Mars500 crew has spent eight months inside a windowless capsule at a Moscow research center as part of the third stage of the 520-day simulation of a trip to Mars. The initiative is being run by the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems with the participation of the European Space Agency. Currently, Mars500 is measuring the effects of confinement and stress on interplanetary travel. Their project aims to gather knowledge about the consequences of a long-duration space flight on the human body and mind to help prepare for a real Mars mission. The crew members are observed by behavioral specialists at all times.
The project is probing the psychological and physiological effects of extended isolation. The crew is allowed to communicate with the outside world only through video messages and e-mails, which are often delayed to give the crew a sense of being in space. The real mission to Mars is estimated to be decades away because of the large financial and technological challenges involved.
-compiled by Faiza Arif
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