Mars 500 – Behind The Black

Europe and Russia talk of joint manned mission to Mars

August 21, 2011 8:48 am Robert Zimmerman

Europe and Russia talk of joint manned mission to Mars.

I’m not sure how seriously to take this story, though its implications are intriguing regardless. More than any other country, Russia knows how to build the kind of spaceship necessary for the journey. What Europe will contribute more than anything else would be money.

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Mars 500 mission passes one year

June 3, 2011 9:03 am Robert Zimmerman

The Russian/ESA Mars 500 mission has completed a year of its 520-day simulated flight to Mars.

The crew, who spent 250 days working on maintenance and scientific experiments before a 30-day stint performing tasks on a simulated Martian surface, are currently on their “return trip” to Earth.

This simulated all-male flight is going better than the last:

In 1999, an experiment in the same Moscow warehouse fell to pieces after a Russian team captain forced a kiss on a Canadian woman, and two Russian crewmembers had a bloody fistfight.