On 03-Jun-2010 the brave six-person crew of the Mars-500 experiment “launched” with the intention of providing a realistic test of the psychological and medical effects of the long-term isolation that would occur during a manned space flight to Mars.  The entire experiment spanned 520 days during which time the crew of volunteers (three Russians, two EU citizens, and one Chinese citizen) lived and worked in a mock spacecraft pictured above.  Food and other consumables were stored aboard the craft and communications with the outside world were delayed (by up to 25 minutes) to simulate the real-life lag between Mars and Earth.  The video below captures the entire experiment in a little under 15 minutes (below the video is the entire timeline of the experiment as well).

• 3 Jun 2010: Beginning of experiment – hatch closed, lift off
• 15 Jun 2010: Undocking from orbital assembly laboratory
• 23 Jun 2010: Transfer to heliocentric orbit towards Mars
• 24 Dec 2010: Shifting to spiral orbit towards Mars
• 1 Feb 2011: Entering circular orbit around Mars
• 1 Feb 2011: Mars Lander hatch opening
• 8 Feb 2011: Completion of loading, Lander hatch closure
• 12 Feb 2011: Undocking, landing on Mars
• 14, 18 and 22 Feb 2011: Egresses on Martian surface
• 23 Feb 2011: Ascent, beginning of quarantine
• 24 Feb 2011: Docking with interplanetary craft
• 26 Feb 2011: End of quarantine
• 27 Feb 2011: Habitation module hatch opening
• 27 Feb 2011: Crew transfer to Habitation module
• 28 Feb 2011: Lander loading with trash ends
• 1 Mar 2011: Hatch closure, Lander undocking
• 2 Mar 2011: Entering into spiral orbit away from Mars
• 7 Apr 2011: Transfer to heliocentric orbit towards Earth
• 15 Sep 2011: End of communications delay, switchover to voice communications
• 13 Oct 2011: Shifting to spiral orbit towards Earth
• 4 Nov 2011: End of 520-day study, crew landing on Earth

In addition to perfecting acoustic guitar and getting on each other’s nerves, the crew conducted a number of scientific experiments and even simulated a Mars landing, with three mock Mars-walks conducted early in 2011.  This experiment was the longest of its kind in the history of space travel.

Related articles:

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• Geek-out Sunday part VII: quantum levitation (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part VI: Apollo 11 (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part V: invisibility cloak (marshallstanton.com)
• Geek-out Sunday part IV: bioluminescent red tide (marshallstanton.com)