Russian Simulated Mars Mission Close To 'Landing'

Dthief writes with this quote from an Associated Press report: "After 233 days in a locked steel capsule, six researchers on a 520-day mock flight to Mars are all feeling strong and ready to 'land' on the Red Planet, the mission director said Friday. The all-male crew of three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian has been inside windowless capsules at a Moscow research center since June. Their mission aims to help real space crews in the future cope with the confinement and stress of interplanetary travel. The researchers communicate with the outside world via emails and video messages — occasionally delayed to give them the feel of being farther than a few yards away from mission control. The crew members eat canned food similar to that eaten on the International Space Station and shower only once a week. None of the men has considered abandoning the mission, although they are free to walk out at any time, mission director and former cosmonaut Boris Morukov told reporters on Friday."

Comments

Start of a bad, racist joke?

[yeshuawatso]

Why does the line "three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian" sound like a bad and racist "walk in a bar" joke?

Re:Start of a bad, racist joke?

[euyis]

Three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian walk into a Mars capsule and can't get out.

Re:Start of a bad, racist joke?

[Doug Neal]

OK, here goes.

Three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian walk into a bar. They order some drinks, and proceed to act in manners stereotypical of their respective countries of origin.
The barman finds their antics highly amusing. They leave several hours later, fairly intoxicated but quite happy.

Re:Start of a bad, racist joke?

[MaskedSlacker]

Stop calling your mother that. It's really starting to creep the rest of us out.

A Frenchman showering once a week?

[Anonymous Coward]

I call bullshit on this one.

Re:A Frenchman showering once a week?

[somersault]

Seems like you washed away your sense of mildly racist humour. I don't get offended when people makes jokes about kilts and sheep... mmmm... those sexy fluffy beasties...

Re:Not a true experience then.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think knowing you can walk out and not die at any time makes the reality of this experiment far less stressful on those inside the test capsule than if they were actually traveling through space and had no opportunity to leave.

FTFY

one really big psychological difference

[PJ6]

None of the men has considered abandoning the mission, although they are free to walk out at any time, mission director and former cosmonaut Boris Morukov told reporters on Friday.

If they wanted more realism (and since it's Russia), they should have told the crew that death in space would be "simulated" if any tried to leave.

Not much of a test

[paiute]

Yeah, it's a trip to Mars - minus the lack of gravity, minus the cosmic radiation, minus the occasional pebble whizzing by at thousands of miles per hour, minus the constant knowledge that a few millimeters of metal alloy separates you from pretty much instant death at all times.

It's the take home test of space travel.

What's special about it?

[Opportunist]

We've had that experiment a while ago. A bunch of unemployed freaks locked together into a can for a year, televised daily.

They called it Big Brother.