Mars500 > Facility

Last week, as you might have read here at spacEurope, the selection of the 32 candidates for the Mars500 Study took place, from where two of them, together with four Russian volunteers, will be sealed in an isolation chamber located in the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, for a total of 105 days starting already in October before a full isolation period with another two European candidates, which will last for 520 days starting early in 2009.

In the upcoming week you will be able to find here an interview with ESA’s Mars 500 Programme Manager, Jennifer Ngo-Anh, who considers that we are, with this study, taking the first steps in a long journey that will culminate in the future with seeing European astronauts on Mars, until then I have decided to help you getting acquainted with the facility that the final candidates will find in their simulation of the journey that will take them not only towards Mars and back to Earth but where they will also experience the life in the landing module that would transfer them to and from the Martian surface.
Feel free to take a tour by downloading and printing the figure on the left and if there is any question regarding the project that you would like to get an answer to just e-mail me and I will make it reach the Mars500 Programme Manager.