Four Russians, a German and a Frenchman are all sealed inside a research facility….
Last Tuesday, six people entered a Habitrail-like series of living modules in a Moscow research lab, where they will spend the next 105 days exploring what a lengthy trip to Mars would be like. They’ll eat dehydrated food and breathe recycled air and endure faux-wood paneling and try not to, y’know, go nuts.
The Mars-500 project is the initial phase of a much more ambitious 520-day simulation of a complete manned mission to Mars: Launch, Mars touchdown, and return home. Studying the “science of sensory deprivation” will help researchers understand how to keep astronauts happy and healthy and non-stabby during an eventual real mission.
I’m thinking they should also try shopping mission footage around as a reality show to help offset research costs.
2 responses to “This Sounds Like the Beginning of a Joke”
I’m thinking they should also try shopping mission footage around as a reality show to help offset research costs.
Posted in News, Space April 7th, 2009 by Chip
Hopefully, more along the lines of Big Brother, rather than, say, Survivor.
Why bother? With the preparation for round-trip excursions, I mean. Just start planning for one-way trips.
I’d be glad to go knowing that I’d never return to the green hills of Earth. (Provided that I am accompanied by every bit of SF written between 1901 and 1999*)
*excepting Elron, of course