Volunteers prepare for 18-month ‘voyage to Mars’

Three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian, and a Chinese man are preparing to lock themselves up in a capsule for 18 months, in an attempt to find out if astronauts can cope with the stress of a journey to Mars.
 
The 'crew' of six men will step into the mocked-up windowless spaceship, which is docked in a Moscow car park, on Thursday. If things go according to plan they will remain inside, cut off from the rest of the world, for 18 months - the length of time it would take for a round trip to the Red Planet.
 
The 'habitable module' of the ship, in which the six volunteers will live, is the size of a bendy bus and is furnished with six small bedrooms. Another area contains a gym, an artificial greenhouse and space for supplies. There is also a medical room attached.
 
The experiment, part of the European Space Agency's Mars 500 programme, has been organised in conjunction with the ominously-named Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems. It will study the effects of fatigue, isolation, claustrophobia and stress on the participants during their 520-day mission.
 
While they are locked away the volunteers will perform similar tasks to real astronauts, such as experiments and routine maintenance work. The crew will follow a traditional five-day working week, although there will not be much for them to do on weekends.
 
Communication with the outside world will take place over the internet and via a radio link, although there will be a time delay on messages to recreate the effects of space travel. The crew will also have to deal with simulated emergencies - medical and mechanical - during the experiment.
 
Halfway through the voyage, three lucky volunteers will get the chance to leave the capsule and take a space walk in what is effectively a giant sandpit - replicating the surface of Mars. The crew will spend 30 days on 'Mars' before beginning the journey home.
 
All six men have undergone intensive training for the experiment, but one of the volunteers, Diego Urbina, a 27-year-old Italian-Colombian engineer, admitted that he was "slightly worried" about the mission.
 
The ESA will hope the latest experiment goes better than a similar venture in 1999 which ended in chaos after the Russian captain forced himself on a female crew member, and two other Russians ended up in a fist fight after getting drunk. Their falling-out left the capsule walls splattered with blood. ·