- Mars 500 simulated mission to the red planet.
Crewmembers of a virtual interplanetary flight have “landed” on their destination planet – Mars ! The simulated touchdown and walk on Mars is a key aspect of the Mars500 mission – a simulated sojourn to Mars and back.
The landing party is comprised of a trio of crew members: Russian Alexandr Smoleevskiy, Italian Diego Urbina and Chinese Wang Yue.
Mars500 is a pioneering international study of the complex psychological and technical issues that must be tackled for long spaceflights.
The effort has been underway for more than eight months at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow (IBMP), with the six-person team living in hermetically sealed modules that imitate a flight, landing, and return sojourn to Mars.
The six crew members have been isolated for more than eight months during the first full-duration simulated flight to Mars. The project enjoys extensive participation by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of its European Program for Life and Physical Sciences to prepare for future human missions to the Moon and Mars.
The first of three sorties by members of the landing party onto the simulated martian surface was carried out on February 14. Those “walks on Mars” will be housed within a large hall alongside the Mars500 modules.
Once the simulated Mars exploration strolls are completed — and the landing crew reunites with the other Mars 500 members in a simulated Mars orbit — all face another long interplanetary trek before arriving “back on Earth’ in early November 2011.
By Leonard David