Countdown begins to 520 day 'Mars mission'

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gVKbPMtEc_gByb422glEIjjhKEYw ^

[rhombus]

And the US will study a thermometer.

[GeronL]

kevindavis

[Diogenesis]

[Frantzie]

There are no more Germans at NASA.

If we go to Mars can we have liberal Tim Robbins burn up in the Martian atmosphere like the movie.

[mlocher]

A group of volunteers have started final training in Russia in preparation for being locked up in a capsule for 520 days to simulate the psychological effects of the voyage to Mars.

520 days of no Oprah. 520 days of no liberals. 520 days of not listening to Obama. Sounds pretty refreshing to me.

[scripter]

Did you mean to ping kevindavis rather than post his name in the text? ;-)

[b4its2late]

They don’t need a simulation to find out the effects. Just round up a bunch of liberals from the US and they’ll see the exact effects.

[KarlInOhio]

520 days of no Oprah. 520 days of no liberals. 520 days of not listening to Obama. Sounds pretty refreshing to me.

You aren't completely out of communications, so you can still receive Obama speeches beamed to the "ship" 24-hours a day. Also the lowest bidder for the speaker contract didn't include an off switch.

[GeronL]

lol!!!

I was distracted.

heh

[Pontiac]

Three Russians, two other Europeans and one Chinese national will be shut away for one-and-a-half years inside the 180-square-metre (1,000-square-feet) module on

1000 sq ft sounds like a very large space craft.

That is about 50 sq ft larger than my first house.

I wonder if they have done any engineering studies on getting such a craft out of Earth orbit yet.

[mlocher]

You aren't completely out of communications, so you can still receive Obama speeches beamed to the "ship" 24-hours a day. Also the lowest bidder for the speaker contract didn't include an off switch.

I am glad you told me this detail now, before I boarded the spaceship. I would have hated to have had to jettison myself a third of the way to Mars.....

I owe you one.

[stefanbatory]

180 sq m is actually over 1900 sf, but who’s counting?

[bobjam]

Do they simulate the food running out and the group drawing straws to see who gets eaten?

[KarlInOhio]

1000 sq ft sounds like a very large space craft.

To give you a scale, the space shuttle's cargo bay is 60 ft by 15 ft = 900 sq ft area. And that doesn't count if you split it into multiple decks.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Can’t they take our Kenyan too?

[luvbach1]

What? No suspended animation?

[Scythian]

[al_c]

[COBOL2Java]

We'll have our own Mars Mission: