The 10 Most Bizarre Space Experiments

My first appearance in a textbook! After numerous turns on the internet, radio and television, I'm truly proud that I've been able to contribute to an educational resource for children. Hopefully it will serve to initiate a fascination with space research for some young minds.

Rubicon Publishing has recently released "The 10 Most Bizarre Space Experiments", a fun and fascinating look into various space projects around the world... and off the world!

TheCanadian company who writes "The 10" series of books contacted me with a request for personal photographs insights into my personal experience with bedrest studies. These programs are used to simulate spaceflight so scientists and doctors can study changes in human bodies in prolonged weightlessness.

It was refreshing to talk about the details of the studies again, since of course it's been quite awhile now since I did extended quarantine with spaceflight protocols. Happily, however, these studies are still going strong, and many new studies are also developed each year for new participants.  Johnson Space Center is still seeking healthy paid volunteers for studies like the one I shared here with Rubicon, and new programs involving the newest space station treadmill.

Ah, memories... but, I was not the star of the tiny tome by any means. A complete list of all the featured stories include:

1. LEGO on ISS
2. Six-legged Astronauts
3. Newts in Space
4. Cola Wars
5. Mars500
6. The Bedrest Experiment
7. Balloon Jump From Space
8. Moon Bricks
9. Space Underwear
10. Telepathy From Space

One of my favorite simulations, performed as a joint project by the European and Russian space agencies, is the Mars500. I followed all three of their missions for years! My feature ends on page 5, and the Mars500 feature begins on page 6! What an absolute honor to be in the same pages of a book with them. Of course, perhaps they would also consider it an honor to be included with a book of long-term space experiments and yeeeeeeears of comparable NASA studies.

I sure wish I could give a link to where the book can be purchased that would work for everyone! However, the target audience is Canadian educators, so it won't be made widely available.  However, if anyone has connections to any of the experiments and would like a look at the particular pages, please let me know!

Mars500 on the ISS

The third and final Mars500 crew wrapped up their Rock Star tour, and can finally take a well-deserved holiday. On the heels of their release and medical checks, the cooped-up crusaders participated in lectures, press conferences and even a Tweetup Event in Italy.

Armed with all this data, talk of another Mars500 mission is already underway – this time to be conducted in low Earth orbit on the International Space Station!

Europe, China, Russia in the Mars500

Initial Project Reports highlighted the many useful aspects of their findings: Isolation hurts. DEDICATED individuals rise to the challenges -- but wherever we go, we take our religions and our basic human nature with us. Cultures clash. Jealousies arise. People get punchy and goofy. Holidays and birthdays matter. Palatable food is crucial.

The experiments and protocols yield vital clues and rules to how we will craft exacting psychological selection procedures for a true Mars mission crew, and how that must be a global effort.

We'll know more about who gets along and why, what technical talents they will need, and what talents need to be redundant across all crew members in case any are lost.

More realistic conditions, but much less room!

The first three Mars500 projects were simulations on planet Earth, done in a facility that evolved over time to contain everything a spaceship to the Red Planet would require, and also a mock-up of Martian terrain. The longest sim then tested physiological responses to confinement, decision making capabilities of a team when Mission Control could not provide instantaneous responses due to distance, psychological ramifications of emotional dynamics in seclusion, plus sleep disorder and metabolism monitoring during the lack of sunlight for more than 2 years.

Many scientists underscored weaknesses in the simulation: normal Earth gravity, the lack of genuine danger, and undemanding conditions – in other words, the men knew they could leave at any time. However, it was a testament to their commitment that even when they experienced rough patches, none left.

Look Ma, no gravity

Obviously, the ISS will introduce many of the facets that simply cannot be replicated on Earth, but in a more confined environment with fewer protocols. However, I still hope they pull it off with cooperation from the other ISS participant countries!

For history on the Mars 500 projects, you can review past posts as I followed them since March of 2009 or also check out the ESA website, which features diary entries and photographs of all the crew members.

Space Highlights of the Year

Amazing happenings in space, other than July's final Shuttle launch...

January: Royal Pain in the X-Files?! PSSRI scientists announced that they expect humanity to find an alien civilization in the next two decades or sooner, and advised governments of all nations, supervised by UN committee, to draft action plans for First Contact: "Should it turn out that we are not alone in the Universe, it will fundamentally affect how humanity understands itself—and we need to be prepared for the consequences."

Unsurprisingly, one evolutionary palaeo-biologist insisted Earth must prepare for the worst. Hawking felt vindicated.


September: Einstein set a speed limit and it seems some physicists think neutrinos are breaking it, so are we gonna have a problem with that, Theory of Special Relativity? If Faster-Than-Light particles are found, we will see a whole lot of excitement and controversy in the world of particle physics. However, the only thing that shocked me was that it was NEWS to so many.

The initial theory was put forth by a Portuguese cosmologist named João Magueijo in a fantastic book called "Faster Than The Speed of Light" (2003). He was clearly ignored, but espoused the theory of Variable Speeds of Light (VSL), insisting that during creation and development of the Universe, light waves have fluctuated. Most young physicists know the work, and those who comprehend quantum mechanics are very familiar... but trying to get the Old Guy Contingent to embrace new parameters of classical physics is like buying your 20-year-old canine an iPhone.


October: Three scientists who watched stars explode and deduced from these supernovae that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate shared the Nobel Prize in Physics. Dark energy, anyone?

November: Mars500 "landed on Earth" after 520 days of simulation inside the "spaceship" in which they traveled to the red planet, frolicked upon the surface of the red planet, then flew home. Can humans cope with the emotional stress and isolation of long duration-spaceflight? They emerged, pale, grinning, and still sane. Radiation and Micro-Gravity sims of the same duration would be harder, methinks.

December: HISTORY, baby! Astronomers discovered Exoplanet Kepler-22b, the first planet outside the solar system orbiting in the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ) around its star. Could life potentially exist? With each passing year, we clever little hairless apes get closer and closer to being able to detect such evidence!

Mars500 Tweetup!

In early November, the Mars500 crew left the isolation of their spaceship when they "landed" back on Earth after a 520-day mission simulation to the Red Planet.


Following the official hatch opening, the crew faced continued medical checks and follow-up studies that were compared to their pre-simulation data. Alexey, Sukrob, Aleksandr, Wang, Romain and Diego (the latter two are keeping everyone updated from their Twitter accounts) will for some time remain under the eye of the mission controllers as data is analyzed, but can now enjoy all those things they probably took for granted before in life... family and friends... sunshine and trees... life on Earth!

Some members of the crew are on a rock star tour of sorts, attending PR events sponsored by the ESA for the European members in France, Italy and Spain. Each of these are designed to communicate their experiences and early sim results to teachers, university students, media and other space agency reps.

On December 6th, a Mars500 Tweetup was held in Rome for a select lucky few; Luca Di Fino of Rome, who tweets under the @ Luke2375 handle, was kind enough to share some of his wonderful photographs from this fun event.

Romain, Kate, Stefania & Diego...
The Mars500 crew and the AFSC crew!

Two of the attendees of the Tweetup were none other than @SpaceKate and @Stelgys – you may remember them from the Mars500 All Female Symbolic Crew, a group of science-minded ladies who closely followed the Mars500 project over the past 2 years.

Luke is a physicist involved in the ALTEA experiment aboard the ISS who also writes the ALTEA Space blog in English and the LucaDiFino blog in Italian. Both carried reports of the Mars500 Tweetup and fantastic photos.

Using the hashtag #mars500tweetup, he even compiled every Tweetup contribution from the event in Rome! Great job!


The Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMBP-RAS) recently published a Mars500 Simulation completion report, with an introduction by Roskosmos head V. A. Popovkin.

The 16-page PDF media kit includes details on psychological evaluations, off-nominal situations, Mars surface rock-collecting simulation, system verifications, crew health verifications, medical controls, and scientific programs of the mission.

Mars500 Lands on Earth

After 520 days inside the space ship, the crew of the Mars500 project opened the hatch this morning! Well, morning for me. At 4:00 am crazy space lady time, which was about 2:00 pm in Moscow, 6 men who have dedicated 2 years of their lives to the most complex Mars voyage simulation returned to Earth.

FULL PRESS CONFERENCE SET FOR TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8th

You can watch the replay on the ESA site, a brief affair where Sukrob, Romain, Wang, Diego, Aleksandr and Commander Alexey emerged from their facility and took turns addressing their applauding organizers (and the press) in 6 languages – Russian, English, French, Chinese, Italian and Spanish. They were then whisked away for medical checks, after which they were finally reunited with their families.

The joy of Twitter allowed me to watch along with my friend Stefania in Italy, who noted they looked good but PALE. You would be too if you hadn't seen the sun in 520 days! She also cracked that they "show no sign of post zeroG dizziness! ;)" … LOL! Okay, so the sim skipped some aspects of spaceflight, such as weightlessness, but the overall exercise yielded amazing results for researchers on the physiological and psychological effects of isolation.


RIA Novosti declared the experiment a success because no participants opted out, everyone stayed healthy, and according to Mars 500 executive officer Alexander Suvorov, all retained their working efficiency throughout the project. None of the scientists are surprised with these outcomes, given the rigorous screenings for tough, experienced, dedicated Marsonauts.

Only the best of the best would go to the Red Planet, something detractors should keep in mind before criticizing science objectives they barely understand. I won't mention names, and I certainly won't link to the Bozo Factor – but some alleged "news" outlets have entirely missed the point of examining how the human body reacts to stress and prolonged confinement.


Unexpected findings included decrease in metabolic rates for all crew members, reduced motor performance and increased levels of sleep disorders. It's useful to know what we would be up against when we are prepared, as a species, for long-duration manned flights to other planets.

Are we ready for that? Of course not, and no one in the Mars500 program suggested that the rocket should be ready tomorrow. The single biggest barrier in getting to Mars is the onslaught of invisible beams from our nearest star. They're aware.

Brain neurons are annihilated by high-speed particles emitted by the Sun, and during a 520-day mission, an astronaut might lose between 13-40% of his or her brain. Yikes. (For comparison, the average Alzheimer patient loses about 5% per year). So until we invent effective protection from radiation, actual missions are still considered to be "in development." Heads up: sims like this count as development. And they matter.


I'd also like to give a shout out to my cyber-buddy @Mantic59, who said in June of 2010, and I quote: "This will be interesting to follow but I am very skeptical that they'll complete it. Too many psychological factors."

So here, finally, is my official response: "They made it!"

I waited more than a year for that. ;)

One Month Left For Mars500

Today is day number #490 out of 520 mission days for the Mars500 crew, so they have now officially reached their final month! It has been an amazing trek to Mars and back, having broken the record for long-term space simulation.

It's been far more than a year since they were sealed into their "ship" -- and in that time, none of them have had a hot-water shower, breathed fresh air, seen the sun, or spent time with their family and friends. Quite a commitment! I often wonder if I could make it that long without going a little batty in isolation...

Boredom often produces beards

As I've read through my past 16 posts about Mars 500 since March of 2009, I've read through the old comments, and noted one reader who said, "As much as I want to be an astronaut some day, 520 days? I do not think its a valid test anyway. They already know from orbital missions that folks lose it in shorter time periods in more space... but not often publicized!"

I agree that overall validity remains to be judged in their published conclusions, but studies like these gain ground in ensuring people DO NOT "lose it" in space during a genuine mission. Some incidents have been publicized though; does anyone remember the "24-Hour Mutiny" aboard Skylab, or am I dating myself? ;)

"It's science fiction, man. We're in Star Trek."
(Sukrob is waaaay too excited about the camera!)

Astronaut Jake Garn holds the record for physical space sickness, but another man has the distinction for the most acute psychological sickness. In 1996, John Blaha deployed to the Mir space station for 128 days. Just before his four-month mark, he began to exhibit hostility toward other crew members, and occasionally complete withdrawal while he battled insomnia and depression.

Not long after, astronaut Jerry Linenger, another inhabitant of Mir (during a stressful accident resulting in a fire he claimed Russian authorities tried to cover up), had what was interpreted as a breakdown and eventually refused to respond to mission control on the ground.

We didn't know much about the effects of long-term spaceflight during the Mir era, so it's not surprising these incidents came to light at that time; it's also not hard to imagine that psychological problems on Mir and the ISS arose from cultural and political differences between Russian and American crews.

We clearly cannot afford this sort of schism on a 520-trek to a faraway celestial body, so I don't think it's an accident that three space agencies joined forces in this simulation, deliberately choosing crews across different countries. One of their ongoing goals is estimating working personality types. That will be an important component in a trip to Mars: screening the right mix of temperaments who are able to work together. And keeping them all BUSY.

Group effort produced Chocolate Martian Balls.
And that, my friends, is the height of civilization.

I want to stress that in reading the entire Mars500 website and blog for many months now, their projects encompass far more that the "isolation" or "collaboration" aspects. They are testing communications, conducting medical experiments, inventing and documenting procedures and even testing whether food grown in a self-sustaining greenhouse is feasible along the way to the red planet.

Many of their results will be published after they land on November 4th!

Mars500 Breaks Another Record

Aside from being the largest and most complex simulation ever conducted by space agencies, the Mars500 just broke a record for the longest time a crew has ever spent in isolation. Some papers reported it as the "longest mission but without leaving Earth" – but that's rather a dodge that doesn't give enough credence to their amazing scientific trials, in my humble opinion.

The six men certainly have some iron determination, and none have opted to leave the 520-day simulation of a journey to Mars and back – call it vested interests between the Russian, Chinese and European space agencies.


They've landed on Mars to collect rocks, had some emergencies and stumbles along the way, they've celebrated one year in space, and occasionally they've gotten a little punchy in isolation. Okay, a lot punchy.

And now, the guys are in the home stretch... less than 100 days to go! Today is day #456, so they have just passed the 85% mark. On day 438, they were congratulated by Russian Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who holds the record for the longest space mission in history, having worked aboard Mir for 437 days.

Technically, he still holds the record for a real mission, but good-naturedly acknowledged the Mars500 for their "spaceflight" surpassing his in simulation. According to Polyakov's video message, it is tradition for Cosmonauts to congratulate their record-breakers.


Communications delays are dwindling as they grow closer to Earth, and many of their missives to the people sending them messages have a "counting down" mentality. Signs of fatigue? Not obvious, from their twitter feeds, but being human and all, I am sure they have their good days and bad.

The doctors who are monitoring their psychological and physical health have said that the monotony of their routine often affects them, but so far none of them has considered leaving isolation. They are always very aware of how their experiment sheds light on long-duration missions.

I'm looking forward to their landing on November 5th of this year! It will be so cool to watch them open the hatch, pop the champagne corks and ask the crew what they will do first, once they are free! To which I am sure the reply will be…

"When do I get my money?!"

365 Days For Mars 500

The Mars500 mission, callsign "Kepler", has reached day #365! Congratulations to Russian crew members Sukhrob Kamolov, Alexandr Smoleevskiy and Alexey Sitev; to Chinese crew member Wang Yue; and also to ESA crew members, Romain Charles from France, and Diego Urbina from Italy & Colombia.

One trip around the sun without a hot shower, just steam and towels. One year with no nature, no grass or trees, no sky.


One year without women. And 155 days to go!

Would you do that for 100,000 Euro? Where, each day, scientists are watching you for signs of how you handle a rigorous work schedule, medical experiments, emergency simulations and just plain... MONOTONY?

Here's an interesting look at how the chaps are handling life after 365 days in the "spaceship" isolation facility in Russia. Most pointedly, I thought it was interesting where Diego says he misses his family, he misses going out dancing, and that he misses the "randomness of the world."

Indeed, spontaneity would be in short supply in their world. Routines would be everything on a mission of this length, because the crew could not afford any system failure out in the black.

They are now getting toward the end of their mission schedule in terms of milestone events, having already landed on Mars and turned the boat around to head back toward Earth.

What remains now are the big questions about which scientific experiments are feasible, teamwork, stamina, continued physical and psychological health... and long-term interpersonal compatibility in a closed environment.


In an interesting turn event for us social media junkies, Steve Légère of the Mars500 Blog has continued to publish Letters From Romain, where the French crewman answers questions put to him by us spaceflight simulation groupies who keep up with their every move.

After I and my fellow AFSC crew members wrote to the Mars500 last month, Romain was kind enough to answer us and also pose some questions in return.

Utah? eek. Hate to break this to you, but I think the closest I will get to a Mars sim now is ... writing about other people who go to extreme environments to do so!

Twitter From Mars

It just wouldn't be a MARS UPDATE week without checking in with Roskosmos and seeing what the Mars500 chaps are up to! Aside from cabin fever, that is.

Very. Serious. Scientists.

After leaving their Marswalk activities behind in March, our intrepid explorers began the long journey back to planet Earth -- continually monitoring the health and psychological stamina of the crew.

One particularly interesting simulation-about-isolation took place in April, where they conducted a complete communications blackout for the space ship. Due to severe disruptions by solar storms (something that could definitely happen on a real Mars voyage!), the crew had no news, no email, no audio or videograms from anyone in the outside world... not even from Mission Control!

In some cases, such total isolation can be damaging, and at the very least, nerve wracking... as evidenced by their later tweet: "What if we came back online [after the storm] and there was no one outside?"

However, this type of training is designed to ensure such autonomy is motivating -- bringing the crew together in times of challenge or uncertainty, and hoping we found the right mix of people who can work as a team in any environment.

They took time in their schedule to celebrate Yuri Gagarin on the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight, continually remembering him as source of inspiration in helping the world to understand that the benefits of our exploration outweigh the dangers. Interestingly, none of the Russians weighed in, but we'll take their reverence as a given!

I was particularly moved by the responses of Diego Urbina, and if that name sounds familiar, it's because I also just mentioned Diego in the last post about MDRS crew, as he has now participated in Mars simulations on two continents.

Also! Big news coming up! Today marks Day #360, so this week will be a very exciting time , in that the crew will reach the one-year milestone in their ship. An entire calendar year in a simulation for science. What amazing commitment! And from there, it will still be 155 days to go until landing...


Join the crew next week on their many organizational sites and social media spots for all the anniversary buzz:

Mars500 Official Site at RU - http://mars500.imbp.ru

Mars500 Site at ESA - http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/index.html

Mars500 YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/Mars5OO

Mars500 Twitter Feed - http://twitter.com/#!/Mars_500

Mars500 Google Blog - http://mars500main.appspot.com/

Steve Légère Mars500 Letters - http://mars500.wordpress.com/

And of course if you query Mars500 on Facebook, you will now find many groups and fan pages sharing news items about this record-setting simulation program. Amazing how these have grown over the past year...!

All Female Crew

The idea for an all-female complement to the Mars500 just happened to arise on St. Patrick's Day, though we were all sober, I assure you. On Facebook, the Mars500 press team and other supporters came together as, in one rep's words, "... a form of psychological support for the Mars500 crew, where we demonstrate that our brave ladies are ready and able to do the same [type of simulation]."

So we have beamed a little photo-shopped gift into the Mars500 module!

Click to embiggen and see all originals!
And hey, that's me on the left ;)

We had a great many brilliant women in the running for the Mars500 AFSC (All Female Symbolic Crew), so we made it clear from the beginning we wouldn't be pin-up girls. Promotion and support? Yes, we all work in the space industry in one capacity or another. Participation? We sure would qualify! And as our head researcher points out, "We're not going to be dollies here -- I'd very much like to get into space some day, and not just as the token woman."


Many of us follow the Mars500 research closely, after having gone through astronaut training, and also done Astro-NOT simulations. So here is our "congratulatory" project from us to the Mars500 crew as they reach various milestones! Today is Day 313, and after landing on Mars, they are now on their way back to Earth.

These men have given up 520 days of their lives for their trip to the red planet... with no wives, no friends, no sunlight, and only the food they took with them! That is a pretty stunning sacrifice for science. And we also happened to notice they had some free wall space where they might put our posters! They can take their pick of many variations done by talented graphic artist Steve Légère. Thanks for the great work, Steve!


How did we know they had wall space? See the panoramic-RU site for an amazing 360-degree view of the Mars500 capsule! The tour is clickable, moveable, scrollable... and watch for the red arrows, to move from room to room. Truly the best floor-to-ceiling view of the spaceship I've yet seen!

But anyway, my fellow crew-women are:
Soyeon Yi - Daejeon, South Korea - Mission Commander
Daria Shapovalova - Moscow, Russia - Pilot
Stefania Ligas - Verona, Italy - Medical Officer
Kate Arkless Gray - London, England - Head Researcher
Misuzu Onuki - Tokyo, Japan - Communications Officer
Heather Archuletta - San Francisco, USA - Chief Engineer


Our true veteran astronaut is Soyeon Yi of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the second Asian woman in space! So, of course, she was unanimously elected Commander of the mission. Stefania? A lifelong space enthusiast, and a teacher in the city of Romeo & Juliet! Daria works at the International Space University. Kate is the famous @SpaceKate, broadcast journalist who came across the pond for the STS-133 launch and never went home! Ex-JAXA Misuzu is also now the Asia liaison of the Space Frontier Foundation.

Quite accomplished international company. We join hands in cyberspace to salute the Mars500!

Footsteps on Mars

The longest space simulation in history today reached the milestone of walking on the red planet! If you've been following my blog for awhile, you know that I love all kinds of simulation activities, and The Mars500 is a particularly in-depth and exciting exploration of how humans may react to the technical challenges and psychological isolation on a 520-day voyage to Mars and back.

This morning has been the most exciting day of the experiment, by far! I have watched the new videos and tweets and Facebook updates with enthusiasm -- but I cannot view them as fast as they are spreading across the web! So here I am, adding to the fray.


On February 1st, the crew achieved orbit around Mars and opened the hatch to their Martian Landing Module, EU-50. The crew separated into two groups this past Saturday: an orbital crew, and a surface crew who boarded the Martian Lander to perform computer simulations of “undocking” from the main ship.

The Mars 500 Blog has a great video of the virtual EDL, and the controllers are monitoring many of the medical aspects of acceleration effects (0-2gs), and weightlessness. Diego Urbina underwent and described the effects of a few nights of "head-down tilt". Having been through it multiple times myself (once for two months!), I love that they added this component to their simulations!


The European Space Agency is abuzz with the news of the first spacewalk at the mock Gusev Crater, and SPACE.COM published a wonderful article about the goals of the program, along with updated schematics of the spaceship modules.

Best of all, RT has just now published numerous videos of Diego Urbina and Aleksandr Smoleevsky on their EVA. In the coming week, Wang Yue will also join the Marswalks, so if you're interested in seeing any of the upcoming live streams, their schedule will be as follows:

Feb 18: Second visit to Martian surface - Smoleevsky and Yue.
Feb 22: Third visit to Martian surface - Smoleevsky and Urbina.
Feb 23: Launch from Mars surface back to main ship.
Feb 24: Docking with basic complex, Marswalkers enter quarantine unit.
Feb 27: Quarantine termination, hatch open to living module.

This Thursday is the halfway mark of the mission as a whole (Day #260). As of Day #270, or their "quarantine termination", the crews will rejoin, and begin the journey back to Earth...

Busy (Celestial) Bodies

A busy weekend for all! I had a fantastic time at the Ames Tweetup yesterday, but am taking a break from twittering so I can put new photo galleries together for next week's posts.

Meanwhile, it's also a very active time for Mars500, as celebrated by my buddy Steve Legere with another great work of art as the crew reached Day #250.

Click to see Martian Surface Simulator module in larger photo

The crew are now orbiting the planet, and preparing to walk on Mars next week, so I hope everyone will be following their progress in this exciting research simulation. Today marks the day of the big much-anticipated landing on the Martian surface!

And... rumor has it, the Russian controllers are planning a medical emergency for the crew, to see their reactions and problem-solving skills as a team. It will be interesting to see how that unfolds, and which crew members will have to feign an injury or illness for the simulation.

For a recap, check out this excellent 2-minute BBC video, which is truly the best description I've seen of all their aims and milestones to date:

Special thanks to Marissa Venturella of Mizzou & Newsy for this great find!

Emergency on Mars!

I feel like that was my first tabloid headline. Emergency! But, not really. Just an
update on the dedicated crew of the Mars500, which I track faithfully on Facebook and Twitter. Every time I fear those gents will get bored inside their enclosed "spaceship" facility, new events unfold that show any trip offworld will be full of surprises -- just like how we interact on Earth.

They celebrated numerous holidays in isolation, but appeared to make the best of their confinement with a few special foodstuffs and a pretty decent paper Christmas tree among their makeshift decorations.

The Russians snuck in some vodka again, it would seem...
(Click to see the entire photo gallery)

However, the true measure of fun times came with their New Year 2011 portrait! And such whimsey. Diego's sunglasses were a particularly interesting touch, given that none of them have seen the sun for 226 days now.

I'm glad to see them partying, since the Mars500 YouTube Channel recently showed that the crew had their first onboard emergency. With alarms blaring, the crew described the loss of power on the ship, and the crew was afterward without electricity, water and ventilation for 20 hours.

Not exactly a warp core breach, but all the drama of a sci-fi episode, complete with a happy ending where all systems were restored. Planned test? Unplanned? One must suspect it was a scheduled protocol to see crew reactions, given how oddly cheerful they seemed about the whole thing. But then, a sing-a-long in the dark would always be a good idea when you don't know when your life support system will revive.

In a bit less than a month now, the crew will split into two teams; two will stay aboard the ship, and three "cosmonauts" will move into a separate container to walk on the surface of a mock-up Mars, using modified Russian Orlan spacesuits.


Check out their excellent blog for updates on their Rover-slash-Sampler Robot, and also see their wonderful photo gallery of all the tests on the fake surface of Mars. Such clever preparations, I can't wait to see what happens!

Mars500 Math

Today, November 22nd, is Day #173 for the international crew of the Mars 500, who are conducting the largest and longest simulated voyage to planet Mars ever undertaken! What is Day 173 out of 520? One third of the way.

Their entire schedule is:
Phase 1... 250-day journey to Mars
Phase 2... 30-day surface exploration phase
Phase 3... 240-day journey back to Earth

A couple weeks back, they passed the milestone where they could finally say, "One year from now, we will finally get to go outdoors again!"


"Mars is the ultimate goal of the global human exploration programme," said Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Human Spaceflight Director. "In addition to developing the necessary space infrastructure for exploration missions, ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight also has an ongoing programme of ground-based analogues and ISS research activities to make sure that our astronauts are as prepared as possible for the physical and mental demands of future long-duration exploration, and to develop countermeasures against any adverse effects of such a mission."

They make it sound so gilt-edged at the press conferences, don't they? And don't get me wrong, I love it when the administrators write, rehearse and deliver quotable-quotes. The real story, however, unfolds far from the glitterati.

As the project has progressed, the crews' logbook-style blog and Martian Chronicles media updates have become more popular (two have achieved a "heart throb" status of sorts in their home countries).

Recently, the more westernized fellows got to introduce Wang Yue to the concept of "Halloween" – with which he was hitherto unfamiliar. But he got into the spirit and improvised a great mummy costume. (However, I have no idea what the heck Alexey was supposed to be!)

Trick or Treat.

He's the one who looks like a sinister nun. Or is that the Grim Reaper, just squinting?

Updated diagrams of the Mars500 Isolation Facility in Russia have been uploaded, as well as greater detail in all the Crew Biographies as the men become better known throughout the space community and news outlets. Great stuff! Especially all the new video diaries, Q&A sessions with the Marsonauts, and their hilarious experience with barbering one another's hair while inside the space ship!

If you haven't been following along thus far, previous updates of the Mars500 are in my blog's Mars 500 Archive, and I'll check in again at their half-time show!