4 Nov 2011

Mars mission ‘returns’ to earth

Six cosmonauts have “returned to earth” after a virtual space mission to Mars, opening the doors of their simulated spacecraft in Russia for the first time in 520 days.

The crew of the Mars500 emerged smiling and waving after spending a year and a half locked in a module designed to simulate the conditions of a manned space trip to Mars.

The six men have been living in the module – which has been parked at an institute on the outskirts of Moscow for 17 months – as real astronauts in space, conducting experiments, maintaining their “spaceship” and dealing with 20-minute time delays for communications with the outside world.

The trip has even included a virtual spacewalk on Mars. In February, three of the crew donned spacesuits to take mankind’s first steps on the Red Planet – or a simulated version of it at least.

We are ready to get into the next spaceship going there. Romain Charles, one of the Mars500 crew

The international crew on the $15m mission were not exposed to weightlessness or solar radiation, but in almost every other way life on the 550 cubic metre mock spaceship resembled a real mission.

Scientists hope their trip will help answer one of the deepest questions of interplanetary travel: can man cope with the mental and physical strains of such an isolated journey?

If the responses of the cosmonauts emerging from their cabin are any indication, it seems the answer is a resounding “yes”.

Frenchman Romain Charles said, with a broad smile: “So after 520 days of motionless trip, we are proud today to prove that humans can go to Mars… We hope that we can help in designing and planning the future missions to Mars and we are ready to get into the next spaceship going there.”

Mars mission 'returns' to earth (Getty)