When you’re a kid, you just jump in the ship and go to Mars. You can make it out of cardboard, an old refrigerator, or a hollowed out bush. My favorite space ship was an overturned stump with tendrils of roots jutting up to make the ship controls.
Turns out that even when dealing with real world space travel, there’s a lot of pretending involved. The Mars500 is a simulated 520 day mission to Mars to test the realities of living a confined life for 17 months.
More info
- Article in Wired Magazine with interviews with the “astronauts.”
- European Space Agencies Mars500 page
- About the planet Mars
- NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s Mars exploration program, which has actually sent robotic missions to Mars
Challenge
How long have you been stuck at home? Can you imagine being stuck inside, with the same people, eating the same thing every day for a year and a half?
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