'Virtual Mars' Crew Locked in 'Spaceship' for 18 Months

Mission 'lands' without ever leaving planet

(NEWSER) - They’re free—and they don’t appear to have gone crazy. The crew of Russia’s simulated Mars mission has landed, by which we mean, been released from the narrow confines of the “spaceship” they’ve been trapped in for 520 days . The six men, ages 27 to 38, grinned widely as they greeted the crowd outside the capsule. “We hope that we can help in designing the future missions to Mars,” Frenchman Romain Charles said, according to the AP . More»

...without actually leaving the planet

(NEWSER) - A crew of cosmonauts has broken the record for longest space mission, having spent 438 days in a 12-foot-wide capsule. But they'll also break another record when their mission is up—the record for shortest distance traveled on a space mission—because they've never actually left Moscow in all that time. The Mars500 crew has 82 days left of a 520-day simulated mission to Mars, meant to test the psychological and physical impact of a long-distance space flight. The record for actual time in space is 437 days, set in 2005 by Valeri Polyakov, the Daily Mail reports. More»

6 cosmonauts will spend 520 days in isolation on simulated journey

(NEWSER) - In a sort of extraterrestrial edition of MTV's "Real World," Russia will lock six would-be cosmonauts in a "spaceship" for 520 days in a simulated voyage to Mars. As Russian scientists test the effects of extended isolation, participants will spend 2 years growing their own vegetables, breathing "spaceship air," and drinking reprocessed urine, Der Spiegel reports. More»

Robot would look after primate during 520-day round trip

(NEWSER) - The first Earthling to reach Mars may be a Russian monkey, according to scientists at an ex-Soviet facility. The director of an institute that supplied monkeys to the Soviet space program in the '80s says the facility is in talks with Russia's Cosmonautics Academy over supplying animals for a simulated Mars mission. A real mission could follow with a robot on board to look after the monkey, he says. More»

(NEWSER) - Of all the hurdles NASA must overcome in order to reach its goal of getting humans to Mars by 2030, keeping the astronauts fed may be one of the most challenging, the Los Angeles Times reports. The agency’s food scientist must devise meals that are light and nutritious and have a 5-year shelf life—much longer than any space-bound food has had to last before. More»