Fake astronauts return to real Earth after fake trip to fake Mars


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520 days after being locked inside a fake spaceship in a Moscow car park, a six-man team of volunteer astronauts is about to emerge back on planet Earth.

The year and a half of isolation, dubbed Mars500 and run by the European Space Agency (ESA), was designed to see how real space crews would cope with confinement, daily activities and psychological stress on a lengthy trip to the red planet and back.

The all-male crew could only shower once a week, ate canned food and received emails on a delay, depending on how "far away" they are from Earth. Their living quarters are the size of a bus and, outside of a quick stint on mock Mars, they've spent two eight-month periods in total confinement.

But Patrik Sundblad, the human life sciences specialist at the ESA, says the simulation has proved a complete success. "Yes, the crew can survive the inevitable isolation that is for a mission to Mars and back," Sundblad stated. "Psychologically, we can do it." (...)

Source: Ars Technica
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I've seen programs about this on Discovery, it's hard to believe this group has actually been at this for years (excluding the 520 days). I hope their work pays off!

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except for all currently planned (experimental) trips to Mars are going to be a 1 way trip.

That was ONE proposal by Scientists Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Paul Davies. The other proposed missions are two-way.

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