MOSCOW — After 233 days in a locked steel capsule, six researchers on a 520-day mock flight to Mars are all feeling strong and ready to “land” on the Red Planet, the mission director said Friday.
The all-male crew of three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian has been inside windowless capsules at a Moscow research center since June. Their mission aims to help real space crews in the future cope with the confinement and stress of interplanetary travel.
The researchers communicate with the outside via e-mails and video messages — occasionally delayed to give them the feel of being farther than a few yards from mission control. Crew members eat canned food similar to that eaten on the international space station and shower once a week.
None of the men has considered abandoning the mission, although they are free to walk out at any time, mission director and former cosmonaut Boris Morukov said Friday.
The six men are due to “land” on Mars on Feb. 12 and spend two days researching the planet.
