NEWS
On June 3, the first full-length simulated mission to Mars started at 13:49 hrs local time (11:49 hrs GMT), when the six-men crew entered their ‘spacecraft’ and the hatch was closed. The mood was somber and determined in the Mars500 facility at the Institute of Biomedical Problems located in Moscow, as the crew talked to the press and then walked into the module that will be their home for the next 520 days. The hatch will remain closed until November 2011 and the crew must manage using the food and equipment stored in the facility. The organisers of the programme include the European and Russian Space Agencies.

VIEWS
The ground-based experiment would perhaps be the longest duration simulation ever conducted in the history of space exploration. The Mars500 Mission, as it is called, would duplicate the actual journey to Mars in a spacecraft using its imitation interplanetary space vehicle, lander and Martian surface. The critics of Mars500 have ridiculed the entire mission as a joke, suggesting that the experiment amounts to little more than sitting inside a giant tin can in a hangar with no sun, no fresh water and no ‘creature comforts’ for an astoundingly interminable 500 plus days. But neither the organisers nor the courageous voluntary crew think of the arduous mission in any other but the most serious terms.

Mars500 has been designed to recreate the conditions of a spacecraft hurtling through the solar system from Earth to Mars & back (one-way distance of 34 million miles) which could take between 18 months and two years. The crew will spend 250 days performing flight tasks and experiments—with half of them spending 30 days on the planet and others remaining in orbit. Getting home will take a further 240 days; with the entire round trip lasting 520 days. The crew of six volunteers, selected out of more than 6,000 applicants from 40 countries, comprises three Russians, two Europeans and one Chinese aged between 26 and 38 years. The oldest, Alexei Sitev is a Russian engineer and commander of the mission and the youngest is Wang Yue, a professional astronaut from China. The others include two Russians Sukhrob Kamolov and Alexander Smoleevsky, a surgeon and a physiologist respectively; a French engineer Romain Charles and an engineer of Italian-Colombian origin Diego Urbina.

The 550 sq m complex consists of four distinct modules. The Habitable Module provides the main living area for the crew. The cylindrical 3.6m X 20m module has six 6 sq m each, individual compartments, a kitchen cum dining room, a living room, the main control room, a toilet and two bedrooms. The cylindrical 3.2m X 11.9m Medical Module houses two medical berths and equipment for routine medical examinations and telemedical, laboratory and diagnostic investigations. The Mars Landing Module will be used during the 30-day Mars orbiting phase. It will accommodate up to three crew-members and will be equipped with a control and data collection system, a video control and communication system, gas analysis system, air-conditioning & ventilation system, sewage system & water supply, etc. The largest Storage Module is divided into four compartments: a refrigerated compartment for food storage and another for non-perishable food, an experimental greenhouse and another containing a bathroom, sauna and a gym.