The Mars500 crew will soon mark a full year in isolation, but they have never been so cut off during their mission as they were for a week in April: they were living and working under a total communications blackout. Read more
Now that the Mars500 crew has been united, when the Marswalkers, 'returned' from the surface of the Red Planet to join the 'orbital' trio, Diego has again had time to send his thoughts. This diary was written on 21 February, before the last egress to the simulated martian surface. Read more
Three crewmembers of the virtual flight to Mars have 'landed' on their destination planet and two of them today took their first steps on the simulated martian terrain. The highlight of the Mars500 mission lasted for one hour and 12 minutes, starting at 13:00 Moscow time. This Mars is housed in the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, on the next storey up the cylindrical modules housing the Mars500 crew. Six men have been already been isolated for more than eight months during the first full-duration simulated flight to Mars. Read more
The first full-duration simulation of a manned voyage to Mars has reached a major milestone: the 'spacecraft' yesterday 'arrived' at Mars after 244 days of virtual interplanetary flight. Three crewmembers will 'land' on Mars on 12 February and make three sorties onto simulated martian terrain. Read more
More than 40 years after Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the surface of the moon, the multinational crew of Russia's Mars 500 experiment will finally leave their spaceship in the coming weeks, and venture out into an adjacent sandpit. The "spaceship" for the simulated journey to Mars is in fact a cylindrical metal pod located in a scientific institute in north Moscow. For the last 233 days the six crew members have been locked inside to simulate the conditions of a trip to Mars. After their gruelling eight-month "journey", the crew will begin their orbit of the Red Planet on 1 February, and will touch down on 12 February. Read more
Research station in Utah desert is glimpse of life on Mars
Travel twenty minutes north of this tiny town, to the craggy red desert of the San Rafael Swell, and you may discover a spaceship. The cylindrical craft isn't from another world, but it offers a glimpse of one. It is the centrepiece of the Mars Desert Research Station, an environment created by the Mars Society, a growing non-profit organisation that supports the research, exploration, and eventual colonization of the mysterious red planet. Read more
In this latest video from Mars500, Diego and Romain show some scientific experiments the crew is working with. The daily routine in the isolation includes not only joking and counting the days passing, but also plenty of serious work with science and maintenance of the facility.