Moscow end 520 day ‘Mars mission’

A trip to Mars is the dream of many astronauts and Moscow have finally allowed 6 volunteers to leave isolation after spending around one and a half years locked away in isolation at a Russian research center. This was to test the effects of a flight to Mars.

The high profile experiment was a talking point since it started and was designed to test the effects of isolation of a return journey to the Red Planet. The experiment even included ‘walks' on a replica of the planets surface and 20 minute time gaps in communication with the outside world.

The small volunteer crew were locked up on June 3rd 2010 and they have been inside a module in a car park outside the Moscow research facility. The module is due to be opened today at 10.00 GMT, letting the crew out, for the first time in 18 months.

The crew are mixed race, with an Italian, Chinese, Frenchman along with three Russians. They will be met by friends, family and high ranking guests including the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin.

Scientists have said that the test procedure is important to judge the possible effects of the arduous journey across the galaxy to Mars.

When the crew emerge from the module, they will be taken away for some tests at the IMBP and at the clinic of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Initially there was debate over the exclusion of a woman within the crew, but the reasons were to remove sexual tensions from the scientific experiment.

The crew are said to be reveal how they coped with the ordeal at a news conference this coming week.

Kitguru says: They each receive $100,000 for their work, according to reports from the agency.

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