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The record-breaking simulated mission to Mars has ended with smiling faces after 17 months. Mars500’s six brave volunteers stepped out of their ‘spacecraft’ today to be welcomed by the waiting scientists – happy that the venture had worked even better than expected. ~ Dean Kosage
Welcome back and thank you, Mars500
The video shows the 520 days of the astronauts’ life during the mission compressed into 15 minutes.
Oh, Mars. As the possible next step in human space exploration, the Red Planet is bound to be visited by us bipeds someday. So what’s the best way to make sure something doesn’t go wrong? Make a simulated, 520 day-long mission with real astronauts and see how things turn out.
Mars500, the European Space Agency’s mission held in a Moscow institute, started 520 days ago on June 3, 2010, with six astronauts enduring the hardships they would probably encounter on a real flight to Mars: The flight there, insertion into orbit, landing, exploration of the planet, and finally the long flight back and landing on Earth.
The mission cost $15 million and, although it could not replicate every aspect of a real flight to Mars (such as constant low gravity conditions), it had the crew perform more than 100 experiments with limited consumables and communications with Earth being artificially delayed and, at times, disrupted.
According to ESA, the team of six international male astronauts has performed “exceptionally well” during the simulated flight. They will go through a series of tests, debriefings and evaluations until early December, when the mission officially ends!