Thursday, June 3, 2010

See you in 520 days – or today @esa.int

Well if I can't mention going to the Moon, maybe an article about simulating going the Mars will have to do.
Wherever you are going to find yourself in a confined space with a group of fellow humans, you have to be able to get along.  The long flight to Mars and back and a short stay there, will test your ability to control your emotions.

I found that a five week leadership course in the Navy with two others in my room was a real test.  One of my roommates was so neat you just wanted to scream, and of course I could never get my towels to hang perfectly.  Then getting a demerit for a chicken feather on your bed didn't help much either.  Not leaving your cramped quarters for 520 days will be hard even if you don't have to worry about being zapped by a Solar storm or hit by a meteorite.
- LRK -

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-- Hatch closed! 18-month Mars500 mission has begun
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30962
-- Mars500: Goodbye Sun, goodbye Earth, we are leaving for Mars!
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34244

"Mars500, the first full-length simulated mission to Mars, started today in Moscow at 13:49 local time (11:49 CET), when the six-man crew entered their 'spacecraft' and the hatch was closed.  The experiment will end in November 2011"

The mood was serious, intense but very determined in the Mars500 facility at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow this afternoon, as the crew of the Mars500 talked to the press and and then walked into the modules that will be their home for next 520 days.

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http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34244
 Mars500: Goodbye Sun, goodbye Earth, we are leaving for Mars!

STATUS REPORT
Date Released: Thursday, June 3, 2010
Source: ESA Mars 500
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/index.html
3 June 2010

This is the first entry of the Mars500 mission diary by European crewmembers Diego Urbina and Romain Charles.

Hello,

If you are reading these lines, I guess that you already know most of the technical characteristics of the Mars500 project. For our first diary, I would like to write some lines about our training and how it is from the inside.

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I hope you caught that this is being conducted in Russia.
- LRK -

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100602/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_mission_to_mars
Russia launching 520-day Mars mission simulation

 By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov,
Associated Press Writer   – Wed Jun 2, 9:43 am ET

MOSCOW – A manned mission to Mars may be decades away, but an international team of researchers will try to experience what one might be like by locking themselves up in a windowless capsule for a year-and-half — the time needed for a roundtrip to the red planet. 

The all-male crew of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese won't endure weightlessness, but from Thursday they will live for 520 days in the spartan conditions of a mock spaceship and follow a harsh regimen of experiments and exercise.

The main task of the Mars-500 experiment is to study the effects of long isolation to help a real space crew of the future cope better with stress and fatigue.
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Meanwhile back on this side of the Atlantic a look in at the vegetable garden for those that would like to learn how to survive on what you can grow.  Fresh food from Earth to Mars would be a rarity.
- LRK -

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-- Live Webcams On Devon Island
http://www.onorbit.com/node/2252

"There are several webcams currently in operation on Devon Island in Support of the Arthur
Clarke Mars Greenhouse located at the HMP Research Station. The greenhouse was installed on Devon Island in the summer of 2002. These webcams update once a day, conditions permitting, through the greenhouse's autonomous systems using an MSAT satellite connection."

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 Other interesting items at the On Orbit web site as well.
http://www.onorbit.com/
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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