Mars 500: Russia locks up six for Red Planet experiment
Russia locks up six for Mars experiment[/align]
The hatch slammed shut Tuesday behind six volunteers from Europe and Russia who will spend three months isolated in a capsule in Moscow to simulate conditions for a manned mission to Mars. The two Europeans and four Russians must now live in the cramped facility until the experiment ends 105 days later, allowing scientists to assess the effects of long duration space flight on their minds and bodies. The Red Planet's distance from Earth varies between 55 million kilometres (34 million miles) and more than 400 million kilometres (250 million miles)
"How do I feel? I am very motivated. There is a kind of relief. We have been working for a long time and finally we are getting to the start point," Frenchman Cyrille Fournier told reporters just hours ahead of the experiment. "The challenge is to live with the same people for a long period but it is a positive challenge. I think we are going to learn a lot about each other," added his German fellow volunteer Oliver Knickel. "The aim is to test the physiological and psychological effects of isolation," he added.
The six climbed into the facility at Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) at 2:00 pm (1000 GMT) and the hatch was firmly closed behind them. They will not emerge again for the next three months unless they decide to pull out of the experiment for health or personal reasons.
The six - all men - will be allowed to take personal effects like books, laptops and DVDs into the facility in Moscow but will otherwise be sealed away from the world. They will be travelling nowhere but the aim of the experiment is to imitate the need for full autonomy of the crew that the year-and-a-half round trip to Mars would entail. In a bid to precisely simulate possible scenarios of a manned mission to Mars, communications with the mission control centre and loved ones outside will be subjected to a time delay of 20 minutes.
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But where's the Diary Room? The whole thing sounds just like a series of Big Brother without pop-tarts and their rubber norks!
