Video: Simulated Mars Mission Crew “Returns” To Earth After 520 Days.
There was a simulated mission to Mars run at the European Space Agency, and it’s finally concluded after 520 days. Want to see the sort of trials and travails they went through? It’s pretty awesome.
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.
The video (above) shows the 520 days of the astronauts’ life during the mission compressed into 15 minutes
I am ignoring an avalanche of social injustices I’d love to see fixed before my death by making this claim, but I’m going to anyways: all I want to see before I die is Man land on Mars. Kick around for a bit. I’ll weep in front of the image projected from the satellites onto my robot eyes’ digital screen.