Jun 21, 2007 9:30 PM

European Space Agency Seeks Volunteers for Mock Mars Expedition

The European Space Agency needs people to isolate themselves for 17 months inside a mock spaceship, undergoing a physical and psychological deprivation akin to that which the first Mars explorers will experience. They will face simulated emergencies, daily work routines and experiments, as well as boredom and, no doubt, personal friction from confinement in just […]

They will face simulated emergencies, daily work routines and experiments, as well as boredom and, no doubt, personal friction from confinement in just 550 cubic metres (19,250 cubic feet), the equivalent of nine truck containers.
Communications with the simulated mission control and loved-ones will take up to 40 minutes, the time that a radio signal takes to cross the void between Earth and a spaceship on Mars. Food will comprise mainly the packaged stuff of the kind eaten aboard the International Space Station.

The ESA hopes to apply the lessons of the experiment to a Mars expedition, which will likely happen in the first half of this century.
The greatest obstacles to such a journey are believed to be mental rather than technical.

Related Wired coverage here.

Space pioneers wanted for 520-day Mars experiment [Agence France-Presse]
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Image: NASA*

Brandon is a Wired Science reporter and freelance journalist. Based in Brooklyn, New York and Bangor, Maine, he's fascinated with science, culture, history and nature. ... Read More

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