Mars500 - Simulated trip to Mars begins June 3, 2010

I see that the Mars500 experiment is in the news again as the final crew members have been chosen.

Three Russians, two Europeans, and one Chinese will be locked in a steel tank without windows for 520 days (that's about 1.5 years).

The idea is to simulate a trip to Mars and back. They'll even introduce a communications delay of 20 minutes between the crew and the outside controllers.

The experiment is happening in Moscow.

The Space Fellowship article: http://spacefellowship.com/news/art2006 ... to-go.html

And an article on BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8673761.stm

And the details on the ESA website: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM9W219Y8G_index_0.html

I think this is a pretty cool experiment. And very worthwhile. The only slight flaw is the psychological effect of the participants knowing that they can choose to be let out if they want. They'll be discouraged from leaving, but if they insist then they'll be released. In the event of a medical emergency I would expect they'd also be released. And that dampens the realism of it.

Clicky the photo for full-size version:

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This is really great to see some research being done on long term isolation and confinement. Besides being a simulation for a trip TO Mars, what about a simulated "habitat" on Mars? A kind of Biosphere 2 experiment I guess (or Biosphere 2.0 ) where they can research not only the humans but the plants and animals. Does anyone know of something like this in the works?