Crew emerges after 520 days of fake ‘Mars mission’

Six volunteers have emerged after 520 days in a ‘Mars mission’ space capsule as part of an experiment run by Russia-based Institute of Biomedical Problems [IBMP].

The £9.4 million Mars500 experiment locked up the all-male crew on 3 June 2010 to determine the feasibility of future space travel to Mars. They were placed inside a 550 cubic metre capsule, enduring every rigor an astronaut would face aside from weightlessness and solar radiation. Reactions were monitored by 30 cameras embedded within the capsule.

Tests were run on the crew’s health to make sure future astronauts could be physically and mentally prepared for long-term space travel. This included measuring how people cope with isolation and boredom over an extended period of time.

The IBMP experiment had the six-man crew replicate an entire journey to Mars, with the first 250 days scheduled for “transit”, the following 30 days simulate work on the red planet and the final 240 days “returning” home to Earth. An imitation Mars surface was used for the second phase, as well as the interior of a landing vehicle.

The entire “spacecraft” was placed in a carpark outside the IBMP centre in Moscow. The crew, three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Columbian and a Chinese man, were required to speak both Russian and English. A series of initial isolation experiments were performed before the Mars500 started in June 2010.

The crew will now be placed into quarantine that will last a minimum of three days.