Mars simulation to send astronauts on a virtual trip to the Red Planet

PARIS - Reports indicate that a crew of six, including two Europeans, will soon begin a simulated mission to Mars in a mockup that includes an interplanetary spaceship, Mars Lander and Martian landscape.

The Mars500 experiment, as long as a real journey to Mars, is the ultimate test of human endurance.heir mission is to mimic a full mission to Mars and back as accurately as possible without actually going there.

Mars500 will be the first full-duration simulated mission to Mars, starting in a special facility in Moscow next summer.

The mission would involve 250 days for the trip to Mars, 30 days on the surface and 240 days for the return journey, totalling 520 days.

“Mars is the ultimate goal of the global human exploration programme,” said Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight.

The 520-day isolation test is the last and core part of the Mars500 experiment that began back in 2007.

The first phase in November 2007 was a 14-day simulation that mainly tested the facilities and operational procedures.

The second phase followed in 2009, when four Russian and two European crewmembers were shut into the facility for 105 days on March 31.

Mars500 is being conducted by Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP), with extensive participation by ESA as part of its European Programme for Life and Physical Sciences (ELIPS) to prepare for future human missions to the Moon and Mars.

During the experiment, the crew will be hermetically isolated in confined space with limited consumables and communication only via the Internet, occasionally disrupted and with a 20-minute delay, as for a real Mars mission, due to the distance between the spacecraft and Earth.

The crew will be monitored and their psychological, medical and physical signs recorded throughout the mission.

During the ’surface operations’ after 250 days, the crew will be divided in half, three will move to the martian surface simulator and three will remain in the ’spacecraft’.

The crew will have all the food needed from the beginning of the experiment and they will have to ration out their supplies for the entire time.

The diet will be similar to that of the crews on the International Space Station (ISS).

Tasks performed by the crew will be comparable to those of the ISS astronauts, but for a much longer time: maintenance, scientific experiments and daily exercise.

They will follow a seven-day week with two days off, except when special and emergency situations are simulated. (ANI)