Bored with your job? Fancy a challenge for the next 520 days? A new fixed-term position from the European Space Agency may be just the ticket: the agency's scientists are looking for six people to go on a pretend trip to Mars.

"However, the agency says the crew will experience extreme isolation and confinement, will lose sight of planet Earth, and radio contact will take 40 minutes to travel to "Earth" and back.

The agency and the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems came up with the Mars500 project to understand how people would cope in such extreme conditions. The crew will be isolated in interlinked modules at the institute in Moscow. Each participant will have a small sleeping compartment and share a medical suite, kitchen, living room and toilet.

A separate Mars landing module will only be available after the first 250 days, the length of the simulated journey to Mars. Two members will then be transferred for 30 days into the lander before a 240-day trip back to Earth. Their daily routine will consist of eight hours of work (which includes scientific experiments and an hour of physical exercise), eight hours of leisure and eight hours of sleep.

"The selection procedure is similar to that of astronauts, although there will be more emphasis on psychological factors than on physical fitness," the agency said.

Alok Jha

The Guardian, June 21, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,,2107661,00.html