Mars Mission Rehearsal

One of the problems with mounting a mission to Mars is knowing how a crew will handle the close to two year mission with only one another in close quarters and the only outside communication subject to a 20-minute lag.

The Russian space agency is starting a preliminary test today. The 105-day experiment will utilize a facility built in the 1970's:

The mock spacecraft consists of four hermetically sealed modules built in the 1970s for isolation experiments ahead of missions aboard Soviet space stations and later the International Space Station. A section was recently added in which participants in the 520-day experiment will simulate a Mars landing.

The facility’s wood-paneled interior maintains a particularly Soviet aesthetic, but it has been equipped with new life-support systems to be tested during the Mars-500 project. Volunteers will tend experimental greenhouses that scientists hope will provide fresh vegetables and sights and smells of home.

One interesting point of the article is that projects such as the Mars mission are being created and administrated by people who will never be able to participate in the mission themselves. They're just hoping to see their dreams realized within their lifetime.