Back in the USSR for crew on simulated Mars mission

TOMORROW WILL be a red letter day for the crew of Mars500. Over the last 17 months, the project has simulated a mission to Mars in a "spacecraft" that remained on terra firma in Moscow.

The idea behind the European Space Agency initiative is to see how humans would cope with the isolation on a long round-trip to and from the red planet, and it has been tracking the fates of the six crew members over the course of 520 days.

The European and Russian crew climbed aboard in June 2010 and last February undertook a simulated landing and exploration of the Martian surface.

French crew member Romain Charles recently documented some of the travails of the situation, including the repetitive nature of onboard experiments and the dwindling of tasty supplies.

“Our menu is based on a one-week cycle with little variation,” he wrote in a diary entry.

“We could adjust some dishes at our convenience but our favourite choices were the quickest to disappear. For example, after only one month the delicious tuna in oil vanished and, after four months, our good favourite chocolate bars followed the same fate. This led to a monotonous diet for the last couple of months.”

Since October 25th, the crew members have allowed themselves to count down to their release tomorrow. And even before the six men are officially “home”, the human life sciences specialist at ESA has been striking an optimistic tone.

“Yes, the crew can survive the inevitable isolation that is for a mission to Mars and back. Psychologically, we can do it,” said Patrik Sundblad in an article posted on the ESA website. “They have had ups and downs, but these were to be expected. In fact, we anticipated many more problems, but the crew has been doing surprisingly well.”