- Credit: ESA
- Credit: ESA
This week a six-person crew from Russia, Europe and China will begin their voyage to Mars! Well, sort of.
The adventure is a simulated 520-day journey to the red planet, one that will test the endurance of crew members to carry out a long-duration spaceflight.
The six “astronauts” will take part in Mars500 – the longest space simulation experiment ever attempted.
When the hatch closes on June 3, the crew will be sealed off from the world in a cramped container at the Moscow Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP).
Their virtual outbound leg to Mars will take 250 days, then participate in a scheduled 30 day “stay” on the red planet, after which the crew embarks on its 240-day return journey back to Earth.
With the exception of weightlessness and exposure to radiation, in-space conditions will be simulated as realistically as possible, according to research scientists at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) taking part in the study.
During the 520 days, about 100 tests are planned, covering the fields of psychology, psychophysiology, clinical diagnostics, physiology and microbiology.
There are six crewmembers plus a Russian backup: ESA-selected Diego Urbina (Italian/Colombian, age 27) and Romain Charles (French, 31); Sukhrob Kamolov (32), Alexey Sitev (38), Alexandr Smoleevskiy (33) and Mikhail Sinelnikov (37) from Russia; and Wang Yue (26) from China.
The Mars500 simulated mission includes an interplanetary spaceship, a Mars lander and a martian landscape.
Mars500 is being conducted by Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems with extensive participation by the European Space Agency as part of its European Program for Life and Physical Sciences to prepare for future human missions to the Moon and Mars.
By Leonard David