"Marsonauts" In A Mission!

The volunteers of Mars500, a group of six astronauts have completed the first part of their training, and now two of them will embark on mastering the art of the Mars walk. Two of the Russians will train their walk in desert sands and cross sandpits in a Moscow Institute. The other four are two from EU citizens, one from China and another from Russia.

They have already spent eight months locked in a series of steel tubes which don't have any windows. This is for stimulating their actual living conditions in the spacecraft and later on the surface of the Red Planet. They would train their walking till next week and the next eight months would be locked up in the "spacecraft.

This 520-day simulation is the third and longest stage of a three-part, ground-based 640-day experiment simulating manned flight to Mars called Mars-500. After 250 days, three of the astronauts will simulate landing on the "Red Planet." Three of the group will now "descend" to the planet, don real spacesuits and walk on the "surface" of Mars. In reality, this surface will just be the sandy floor of another module at the Moscow-based experiment. The other three will wait for them - in the mock spacecraft - for a month. All communication with Earth will be via e-mail and will have as much as a 40-minute delay, like on a real Mars mission. After 30 days on the "Mars" surface, the three crew members will rejoin their crew mates for the rest of the 240-day return trip home to "Earth." The Russians will walk in desert sands and cross sandpits in the Institute.

This six man mission began in June last year at a research centre in Moscow. The experiment is a joint venture between Russian science Institute and the European Space Agency (ESA), is the longest ever space simulation experiment. After spending eight months in the claustrophobic wood-panelled capsule, three of the Mars500 came out for the first time, transferring to a landing module for the 'touchdown' on Mars. After the long period of reduced physical activity and isolation, researchers will look at how they cope in their spacesuits, each weighs 32 kilos. Only a few people are allowed near the research centre for fear of contaminating the conditions of the experiment. Coordinators have made it as realistic as possible with their great length of view. Since last summer, start of the experiment there has been bizarre aimed to finding out more about the physical and psychological of long distance space journey.

The head of the project, ESA astronaut Dr Christer Fuglesang, is a veteran of two shuttle missions to the International Space Station. He said: "Boredom and monotony - from our point of view what's important is to try to not give them too much or too little to do and then come up with some interesting things to beat the monotony."Though meticulously planned, their diet has looked pretty uninspiring - and it will remain so until their mission ends in November. The completion of this stage brings the possibility of a manned mission to Mars that bit closer, though that is not likely any earlier than 2030.

ArticleSource: ArticlesAlley.com