Yesterday, Russian engineers cracked the wax seal on a metal hatch, and six men emerged from the simulated space capsule where they had spent the last 105 days in experiment designed to simulate the isolation of a manned trip to Mars.
The experiment is part of a larger project dubbed "Mars 500." The three months the men spent in isolation are a precursor to another simulation to take place in 2010, when another crew will submit themselves to 520 days in isolation, the projected time it would take for a return trip to Mars [ABC News].
The four Russians, one German, and one Frenchman were chosen from among 6,000 applicants, and were paid about $21,000 each for participating. Inside the mock capsule, they conducted experiments to test their physical and psychological reactions to the isolation, and performed many of the tasks that would keep Mars-bound astronauts busy.
They had no ...
