Want To Pretend You Are On Mars For 520 Days?

November 30th, 2009

This reminds me of an old Twilight Zone where a guy spent 30 days in a tiny capsule to see if he would go insane. The purpose of the experiment was to see if he would be able to fly to the outer limits (that’s a show too) of the universe without cracking up.

Starting in 2010, an international crew of six will simulate a 520-day round-trip to Mars, including a 30-day stay on the martian surface. In reality, they will live and work in a sealed facility in Moscow, Russia, to investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration space mission. ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part.

See…they stole this from the Twilight Zone. I will bet you anything this is where they came up with the idea. Maybe they will go crazy like they did back when the TZ episode aired. Like someone will come back and start saying “Ro-butt” instead of “robot” like they did in the 50′s. ROBUT! Back when certified diamonds were like the greatest thing ever made.

The ‘mission’ is part of the Mars500 programme being conducted by ESA and Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) to study human psychological, medical and physical capabilities and limitations in space through fundamental and operational research. ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight is undertaking Mars500 as part of its European Programme for Life and Physical Sciences (ELIPS) to prepare for future human missions to the Moon and Mars.

Following on from the successful 105-day precursor study completed in July, ESA is now looking for two candidates and two backups for the full 520-day study, which is due to get underway before mid-2010 after four months of training.