Updates Mars500 Updates - Page 7 - Orbiter-Forum

4throck · 07-15-2010, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiberianTiger

...

Come on, we are on a forum for geeks. What one would expect from geeks?

Hum.. It is possible to find a geek girlfriend

Trust me... they exist and use pictures of Soyuz as a desktop background.

As for sex/no sex... I always wonder how the 15th/16th century sailors managed during many months or years at sea....

**Izack** · 07-15-2010, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiberianTiger

Come on, we are on a forum for geeks. What one would expect from geeks?

Granted.

**SiberianTiger** · 07-25-2010, 08:49 PM

Since July 26th, Mars-500 crew will stop communicating with outside world real-time and will switch to batch audio transmission with steady increase of artificial delay to simulate the comms delay that would be there during an actual Mars mission. In addition, email channels will remain available.

Also today was a birthday of Chinese experiment participant, Wang Yue. The rest of the crew congratulated him with a celebrational writing in Chinese:

Also, mission CDR Alexei Sitev recorded a conrgatulatory message to all sailors of Russian Navy on the Navy Day (being a naval officer himself).

**Orbinaut Pete** · 08-07-2010, 03:38 PM

Roscosmos PAO: "Fyodor Yurchikhin Advises Mars-500 Participants from the ISS".

Quote:

Flight Engineer of the International Space Station Fyodor Yurchikhin advised participants of the Mars-500 simulation, answering the question he received through ISS Mail Box which works in Memorial Space Museum of Moscow with support of Roscosmos PAO and Moscow's Department of Culture. Yurchikhin says joint resolution of the problem shall help the crew involved in the simulated mission to Mars to develop their own microclimate in the facility.
"The heritage shows that all the family problems begin at the kitchen… Minor problem shall be solved first, and this will help you to achieve the goal, to complete the mission successfully", Yurchikhin says.
He added that it would be useful to get together to have meals in the evening, to discuss news, sport and other topics, but to avoid talking about work.
"It is easy to give advice, but it is hard to follow it. I wish you success and patience", Yurchikhin concluded.

**Orbinaut Pete** · 08-10-2010, 08:50 PM

Mars500 video diary 5 - Romain Charles is collecting air samples.

YouTube- ‪Mars500 video diary 5 - Romain Charles is collecting air samples‬&lrm;

**Orbinaut Pete** · 09-03-2010, 04:40 PM

SPACE.com: "On Months-Long Missions, How Durable Is An Astronaut's Mind"?

---------- Post added 3rd Sep 2010 at 05:40 PM ---------- Previous post was 2nd Sep 2010 at 07:26 PM ----------

SPACE.com: "Wanted For Long Space Missions: Flexible Astronaut, Works Well With Others".

As a Brit, I'm willing to work with anybody.....so long as I'm in charge!

**Orbinaut Pete** · 09-06-2010, 08:39 PM

Mars500 video diary 6 - How supplies are rationed.

YouTube- Mars500 video diary 6 - How supplies are rationed

**Orbinaut Pete** · 09-12-2010, 05:19 PM

ESA: "Science and thoughts of Chilean miners".

In this newest diary entry from the Mars500, Romain writes about cognitive experiments, describes how to do EEG measurements and sends his best regards to the 33 miners trapped beneath the ground in Chile.

When you are in isolation you tend to feel closer to all the other people who are living, or who have lived, the same kind of experience. From a former colleague who sailed on submarines to our fellow Mars500 colleagues Oliver Knickel and Cyrille Fournier, I have received a lot of advice to help me cope with the isolation. I really appreciate and understand them now. The main advice that I hear from everybody is “stay busy, be careful with your health and keep a normal day-night schedule”.

This advice I would like to share with all the people who are in isolation. In particular, all our thoughts go to the 33 miners in Chile who are trapped beneath the ground. Their living conditions are really tough and I hope that our message, which Diego kindly translated into Spanish, will reach them.

Now I will come back to our day-to-day life in our modules and for this diary I want to talk about one experiment. As you may know, my background is in the automotive industry and more specifically, quality control. For several years I studied, wrote and validated many work instructions as part of my job.

Coming back to Mars 500, we have roughly 100 experiments to perform during this isolation study and each one of them has instructions. I won’t enter into too much detail because it could become boring but trust me when I say that there are huge differences between all these instructions.

To show you a typical experiment, I will focus on one good example involving Electro-Encephalo-Graphy (EEG): exercise as a countermeasure to psycho-physiological deconditioning during long-term confinement. The scientists behind this were able to transform this complex and unfriendly title into an actually easy and visually attractive experiment.

This experiment involves an EEG and cognitive tests before and after exercise, to see how exercise can help us cope with the psychological problems of isolation.

Unless you are a doctor or a nurse, probably you have never performed an EEG. The basic idea of this technique is to record the electrical activity of the subject’s brain. We are the subjects here. To have a good signal, each electrode must be connected to the skull. Don’t be afraid, we connect them with a gel. For all our EEGs, we have to validate that each electrode has good connectivity.

The nice thing about this experiment is that a tiny colored light bulb is on the electrode and it appears red (if the connectivity is not good) or green (if everything is all right). For the setup of the EEG for other experiments we have to refer to a software, which is less efficient. We have also discovered another use for these red and green lights: Xmas lights! Now we just have to find an Xmas tree before December.

The cognitive performance tests are widely used in our 100 experiments. We have to count, to estimate time, to react to visual stimuli or do all these things at once while playing some ’stressful’ games (I mean it, sometimes I think the goal of some of these games is to stress us!).

The clever idea of the scientists for this experiment was to use off-the shelf ’edutainment’ games; just like the ones those of you who like to spend a few minutes everyday playing on your smartphones use. We use an iPod Touch with cognitive tests, three of them. As we can look at the best scores there is a kind of competition between us and each time we try to perform the best we can. The data retrieved by the scientists will then be more consistent and meaningful.

One last point that I want to stress is the storage of this experiment. Generally big boxes are used and we have to spend some minutes looking for a device that is hidden inside. As you can see on the picture, this EEG experiment has everything in one suitcase. When you open it everything is attached and has its own place. Some may recognise a successful ’5S’ in this picture. “There is a place for everything and everything is in its place”.

I hope that you get a better understanding of our experiments through the description of this one. We will continue to give you an insight into some of the many experiments we are executing on behalf of the scientists involved in Mars500.

**Orbinaut Pete** · 09-15-2010, 09:31 PM

ESA: "105 days in isolation – and counting – for 400 more".

Sailing now in interplanetary space on their simulated mission towards the ‘Red Planet’, the Mars500 crew has entered in a new phase of their isolation. The previous mission endured 105 days in 2009 and from now on, everything in this experiment is new.

The six crewmembers of Mars500, safely locked in their facility in Moscow, have been cruising virtually towards Mars since 14 June, when their mission ‘departed’ from Earth’s orbit. The ‘launch’ occurred on 3 June when the hatch of their spacecraft-analogue facility was closed.

Since then, the crew has followed the timeline of the mission, reproducing as accurately as possible a potential mission to our planetary neighbour, complete with communication delays and daily routine similar to real space missions.

Right now the delay in communication – representing the distance of the craft from Earth – is two minutes in each direction, making direct communication impossible. As the simulation goes on, the delay will increase to 20 minutes.

Next major milestone will be a ‘landing’ on Mars, planned now for 10 February 2011. The entire ‘mission’ will last around 520 days, with the expected ‘splashdown’ back on Earth in early November 2011.

Day by day.

“It is difficult to think that in a year’s time we’ll still be here in the modules,” says Romain Charles, one of the ESA-selected crewmembers. “We just try to take every day as it comes and make the best out of that. This has worked fine for 105 days, and it will work for the more than 400 days left.”

With more than 100 scientific experiments to conduct, the Mars500 crew has no danger of having nothing to do. Crew time is packed with entertainment and personal projects, in addition to continuing maintenance and daily tasks in their ‘spacecraft’. They exercise for several hours a day to make up for their limited amount of natural physical activity.

“It has already been a long time, and at this phase of the mission the previous crew would have been excited, as they were looking forward to ending their isolation,” laughs Diego Urbina, the other European aboard. “We don’t have that luxury. We just have to keep our minds as steady as possible – for what will be a very long time.”

Keep the daily routine!

Both of the European ‘marsonauts’ are sending their best regards to Cyrille Fournier and Oliver Knickel, the ESA-selected members of the 105-day-long precursor mission.

“We could have continued easily our mission,” says Cyrille Fournier, one of the two European crew members in 105-day-study. “The motivation is the key issue. It is also important to do always something. I had too much to do in the facility - I didn’t have any time to wander around and watch time passing. Another important thing is daily routine. When you are following that, you can basically just go on, almost indefinitely.”

“Of course we had highs and lows during the mission,” continues Oliver Knickel, other European 105-day crewmember. “In the beginning we were very enthusiastic and then again in the end, when only few days were remaining.”

The most difficult moments during their isolation were in the middle, about six to eight weeks from the beginning. “You can go over these phases and have a successful mission only as a crew. So, my advice to the current team is simple: think what you can do for your crewmates,” states Oliver.

“During the mission, you’re colleagues and everybody is acting professionally, but afterwards you’re friends,” Cyrille concludes. “We’re all still very close now as friends. It was a great experience! I wish all the best for the new crew inside the ‘spacecraft’”

**SiberianTiger** · 09-16-2010, 03:56 AM

And they've made a cool photo:

**Orbinaut Pete** · 09-19-2010, 03:02 PM

ESA Video: More than 105 days for Mars 500.

YouTube - More than 105 days for Mars 500

---------- Post added at 04:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:50 PM ----------

ESA: "Thanks to Oliver and Cyrille"!

The recent letter from the Mars500 facility was written on 13 September, when the mission logged 105 days. This marks the duration of the precursor experiment in 2009, and therefore a good moment for Diego and Romain to take stock and think about the months to come.

If I think about '105 days', the first thing that comes to mind is two names: Oliver Knickel and Cyrille Fournier. They made our mission possible by successfully completing theirs: Mars 105, which ran from March to July 2009.

When I first met them in April this year we spent the whole of our first night talking about their mission, our mission and a hundred other things. One sentence from Oliver particularly struck me and made me realise what kind of challenge we were jumping into. He said: “If our mission had been 520 days long, we would still be inside the modules right now”. At that time these words were kind of scary for me.

If I look back at this first period, I would divide it into three parts:

Our first days were spent getting used to our environment for all our basic needs such as food, cleaning and so on. Our adaptability was our most important skill. The end of June and the month of July were focused on our 100 experiments. We were often in contact with the scientists to make sure that the data we would gather for more than a year and a half was okay. Over the last six weeks we have settled into a smooth routine, which allows us to spend more time on our personal projects.

Today we have reached the symbolic number of 105 days and Oliver’s sentence doesn’t feel frightening anymore. We take our isolation in succession of one day, plus one day, plus …

We don’t focus too much on the days left before we 'come back to Earth'. Instead, we spend all our energy trying to make everyday a good day. If anyone has a problem with an experiment, the other five of us are always ready to help. This state of mind hasn't changed for 105 days, and I’m sure that it will be the same for the next 415 days. Thanks to this amazing team spirit, I still enjoy being with the other crewmembers.

-Romain.

Even though, as Romain says, we are not fans of counting the elapsed and remaining days, I have a thing for considering – the 'chunks' of days. When we were at 50, I’d say to myself –“Ok, the whole mission is 10 times this much, and then we are done. Wait, 10 times this much? That will take forever!”

For some reason I feel like 100 days is a number I like way more. Even though objectively there is more than a year left, thinking that we will need only four more chunks of about 100 days to finish sounds great! Only now it feels like time does pass sort of fast.

I think it is a great opportunity for us to thank all the crew that stood here for 105 days so that our 520-day mission could run smoother. So, I'd like to send them a big hello. We are very grateful that Oliver and Cyrille have stayed in touch!

Being here during these 105 days has taught me different things. From the day to day life and relationship with the crew and mission control, to the science in the experiments, to the school courses that I follow via mp3s and books, to absolutely random stuff. For instance, thanks to Wang Yue, I learned that for dinner guests of honor in some parts of China are typically served camel that has a lamb inside that has a chicken inside that has an egg inside.

The day has, in general, slowed down a bit, so I try to change the routine whenever I can. This can be by doing different things, or by doing the same things in a different sequence if possible. In our remaining free time, we enjoy watching movies together and playing games. We enjoy our time together very much. In spite of our discipline and rigorousness doing the scientific work, we have an amazingly easygoing crew, which is usually a balance hard to get.

Of course you have to deal the fact that you don’t see other people or can’t talk 'live' with anyone else besides the crew. In that sense I’ve been experimenting with Twitter and it has been a really nice way to 'probe' the outside world and share what we do. I can’t update it live or very often, but it has worked fine. Writing the blog updates for the ESA website has been fun as well.

All in all, I‘ve enjoyed it so far, and hope that being here will continue to give us those little satisfactions and hope that we will keep being a team as cohesive and steady through the good and less good times! I think we’ve got what it takes.

-Diego.

**Orbinaut Pete** · 10-01-2010, 09:00 PM

ESA: "Diego and Romain answer your questions".

The Mars500 crew is answering your questions by email and the first answers are now here.

Questions are welcome from the members of the media and also from anyone else who his interested. As on a real trip to Mars this is not in real-time, questions will be relayed to them through 'mission control'.

Please think carefully about your question and keep it short - the best questions will be selected and sent to the crew to answer! They will answer as many as they can but also have a busy work schedule.

The address is: mars500crew@esa.int.

q/to mars500:
Hi,
have you brought any sci-fi books/movies involving space travelling (like Alien etc)? If so, what is it like to read/watch them while being part of this eksperiment?
Jarle, Norway

a/from romain:
Hello Jarle,
We have brought with us a lot of Sci-fi books and movies. Each time that we watch one of them, we always comment it. We are much more sensible to each detail of the film or of the book.
For example, we saw “2001: A Space Odyssee” a couple of weeks ago and I could really feel the loneliness and the monotony that the 2 main characters had to endure. I didn’t experience these feelings the first time that I saw this movie.
Romain

q/to mars500:
Dear Mars 500 Crew:
Thinking about you guys a lot. Wonder how you are doing?
May I be frank? I would find it very hard to be away from my wife for so long...May I ask: how are you coping with missing your loved ones, partners or wives?
I believe that this will deepen your personal relationships with them "back on earth"; what is important is the willingness to love, to continue to see it through, not merely the "loving", right?
In Great Admiration,
chaz mean
Miami, FL
USA

a/ from romain:
Hello Chaz,
Each of us has a different way to cope with the distance between us and our loved ones. I tend to write them a lot of messages. I tell them what is happening here and they tell me how life is going on outside.
During my studies I already spent several months away from my family so 107 days of isolation is still bearable. In one year, I’m not sure if I would have the same answer for you.
Romain

a/from diego:
I see what you mean, I think if I had wife and/or kids it would be much more difficult for me than it is already. However, there are guys in the crew who do have this kind of family and it looks like they are handling it extremely well.

It is not easy to leave out there all the people you love. Your observation is very insightful, because In my experience until now, yes, it does tighten your relationships with the people you can share this extremely particular experience with, and who are waiting for you to get out on the last day. The communication is difficult, but at the same time, I don’t usually write emails as long as I do now!
Diego

q/to mars500:
Good morning sir
Have you any kind of method to change the personal feeling of time??? Regards
Nick Saltabidas

a/from romain:
Hello Nick,
My method is very simple: I keep busy. On top of our daily work I planned other activities (review my physics lessons, continue to study the Russian language and play the guitar). I never have enough time to do everything!
Another important point is that, with the crew, we rarely talk about the days left. We just focus on the week to come.
Romain

a/ from diego:
Hello! If I understand well and you mean a way of seeing time pass faster, I do! I think time passes fast when I read or am very busy working on an experiment, or when I am working on a graphic design project in my free time. When I do this, I fell like time goes much faster.
If on the other hand, for some odd reason, I wanted to slow down time, I would spend more time in the thread mill! (one of our hardest exercise machines) It never seems to end when I am on it!
Thanks!
Diego

q/to mars500:
Hello Romain,
Just a note to wish you well from an old friend at Aston Martin. I was told what you are doing and I was very suprised.
I thought Sotira was a challenge but this is nearly out of this world !!!
I am going to the Red sea at the end of September on a live a board to do some diving. Can you receive pictures?
If you can, I will send some under water pics if you would like to see them .
Hope all is well
Best of luck
Nigel Turner, Aston Martin - Paint Engineer

a/from romain:
Hello Nigel,
It was a real pleasure to discover your message. Please send my best regards to all the people who remember me at Aston Martin.
I would be glad to receive your under water pictures. With them, you will make two persons happy because our commander (Alexey Sitev) is a professional diver and he already hanged several of his pictures on the walls.
Enjoy your holidays!
Romain

q/to mars500:
hola diego..un saludo desde cádiz de inma,juan y nuestra gatita aruca maría..que tal la comida que llevais?..cuidaros.

a/from diego
Hi, the food is great! Though there is some difficulty in repeating the same dishes often, and eating exactly what you need to, sometimes more than you would like! However we are coping with the situation rather well! Of course, it would be much better if we had Tortillas de Camarones from Cadiz!
Thanks

Hola! La comida es muy buena, aunque a veces es difícil repetir los mismos platos en intervalos de poco tiempo, y comer exactamente lo que te piden, que a veces es más de lo que quisieras. De cualquier manera hemos logrado adaptarnos bien! Por supuesto, sería mejor si pudiéramos comer Tortillas de Camarones !
Diego

**Orbinaut Pete** · 10-19-2010, 08:42 PM

Mars500 video diary 7.

YouTube - Mars500 video diary 7

**Orbinaut Pete** · 11-03-2010, 04:50 PM

The barber shop on the way to Mars - Mars500 video diary 8.

YouTube - The barber shop on the way to Mars - Mars500 video diary 8

**SiberianTiger** · 11-08-2010, 07:41 PM

Take a virtual flash tour across the Mars500 complex:
http://www.pano360.ru/vtours/mars-500/station/tour.html

09-12-2010, 05:19 PM	#98
Orbinaut Pete ISSU Project Manager	ESA: "Science and thoughts of Chilean miners". In this newest diary entry from the Mars500, Romain writes about cognitive experiments, describes how to do EEG measurements and sends his best regards to the 33 miners trapped beneath the ground in Chile. When you are in isolation you tend to feel closer to all the other people who are living, or who have lived, the same kind of experience. From a former colleague who sailed on submarines to our fellow Mars500 colleagues Oliver Knickel and Cyrille Fournier, I have received a lot of advice to help me cope with the isolation. I really appreciate and understand them now. The main advice that I hear from everybody is “stay busy, be careful with your health and keep a normal day-night schedule”. This advice I would like to share with all the people who are in isolation. In particular, all our thoughts go to the 33 miners in Chile who are trapped beneath the ground. Their living conditions are really tough and I hope that our message, which Diego kindly translated into Spanish, will reach them. Now I will come back to our day-to-day life in our modules and for this diary I want to talk about one experiment. As you may know, my background is in the automotive industry and more specifically, quality control. For several years I studied, wrote and validated many work instructions as part of my job. Coming back to Mars 500, we have roughly 100 experiments to perform during this isolation study and each one of them has instructions. I won’t enter into too much detail because it could become boring but trust me when I say that there are huge differences between all these instructions. To show you a typical experiment, I will focus on one good example involving Electro-Encephalo-Graphy (EEG): exercise as a countermeasure to psycho-physiological deconditioning during long-term confinement. The scientists behind this were able to transform this complex and unfriendly title into an actually easy and visually attractive experiment. This experiment involves an EEG and cognitive tests before and after exercise, to see how exercise can help us cope with the psychological problems of isolation. Unless you are a doctor or a nurse, probably you have never performed an EEG. The basic idea of this technique is to record the electrical activity of the subject’s brain. We are the subjects here. To have a good signal, each electrode must be connected to the skull. Don’t be afraid, we connect them with a gel. For all our EEGs, we have to validate that each electrode has good connectivity. The nice thing about this experiment is that a tiny colored light bulb is on the electrode and it appears red (if the connectivity is not good) or green (if everything is all right). For the setup of the EEG for other experiments we have to refer to a software, which is less efficient. We have also discovered another use for these red and green lights: Xmas lights! Now we just have to find an Xmas tree before December. The cognitive performance tests are widely used in our 100 experiments. We have to count, to estimate time, to react to visual stimuli or do all these things at once while playing some ’stressful’ games (I mean it, sometimes I think the goal of some of these games is to stress us!). The clever idea of the scientists for this experiment was to use off-the shelf ’edutainment’ games; just like the ones those of you who like to spend a few minutes everyday playing on your smartphones use. We use an iPod Touch with cognitive tests, three of them. As we can look at the best scores there is a kind of competition between us and each time we try to perform the best we can. The data retrieved by the scientists will then be more consistent and meaningful. One last point that I want to stress is the storage of this experiment. Generally big boxes are used and we have to spend some minutes looking for a device that is hidden inside. As you can see on the picture, this EEG experiment has everything in one suitcase. When you open it everything is attached and has its own place. Some may recognise a successful ’5S’ in this picture. “There is a place for everything and everything is in its place”. I hope that you get a better understanding of our experiments through the description of this one. We will continue to give you an insight into some of the many experiments we are executing on behalf of the scientists involved in Mars500. Last edited by Orbinaut Pete; 09-19-2010 at 03:03 PM.

09-15-2010, 09:31 PM	#99
Orbinaut Pete ISSU Project Manager	ESA: "105 days in isolation – and counting – for 400 more". Sailing now in interplanetary space on their simulated mission towards the ‘Red Planet’, the Mars500 crew has entered in a new phase of their isolation. The previous mission endured 105 days in 2009 and from now on, everything in this experiment is new. The six crewmembers of Mars500, safely locked in their facility in Moscow, have been cruising virtually towards Mars since 14 June, when their mission ‘departed’ from Earth’s orbit. The ‘launch’ occurred on 3 June when the hatch of their spacecraft-analogue facility was closed. Since then, the crew has followed the timeline of the mission, reproducing as accurately as possible a potential mission to our planetary neighbour, complete with communication delays and daily routine similar to real space missions. Right now the delay in communication – representing the distance of the craft from Earth – is two minutes in each direction, making direct communication impossible. As the simulation goes on, the delay will increase to 20 minutes. Next major milestone will be a ‘landing’ on Mars, planned now for 10 February 2011. The entire ‘mission’ will last around 520 days, with the expected ‘splashdown’ back on Earth in early November 2011. Day by day. “It is difficult to think that in a year’s time we’ll still be here in the modules,” says Romain Charles, one of the ESA-selected crewmembers. “We just try to take every day as it comes and make the best out of that. This has worked fine for 105 days, and it will work for the more than 400 days left.” With more than 100 scientific experiments to conduct, the Mars500 crew has no danger of having nothing to do. Crew time is packed with entertainment and personal projects, in addition to continuing maintenance and daily tasks in their ‘spacecraft’. They exercise for several hours a day to make up for their limited amount of natural physical activity. “It has already been a long time, and at this phase of the mission the previous crew would have been excited, as they were looking forward to ending their isolation,” laughs Diego Urbina, the other European aboard. “We don’t have that luxury. We just have to keep our minds as steady as possible – for what will be a very long time.” Keep the daily routine! Both of the European ‘marsonauts’ are sending their best regards to Cyrille Fournier and Oliver Knickel, the ESA-selected members of the 105-day-long precursor mission. “We could have continued easily our mission,” says Cyrille Fournier, one of the two European crew members in 105-day-study. “The motivation is the key issue. It is also important to do always something. I had too much to do in the facility - I didn’t have any time to wander around and watch time passing. Another important thing is daily routine. When you are following that, you can basically just go on, almost indefinitely.” “Of course we had highs and lows during the mission,” continues Oliver Knickel, other European 105-day crewmember. “In the beginning we were very enthusiastic and then again in the end, when only few days were remaining.” The most difficult moments during their isolation were in the middle, about six to eight weeks from the beginning. “You can go over these phases and have a successful mission only as a crew. So, my advice to the current team is simple: think what you can do for your crewmates,” states Oliver. “During the mission, you’re colleagues and everybody is acting professionally, but afterwards you’re friends,” Cyrille concludes. “We’re all still very close now as friends. It was a great experience! I wish all the best for the new crew inside the ‘spacecraft’” Last edited by Orbinaut Pete; 09-19-2010 at 03:02 PM.

10-01-2010, 09:00 PM	#102
Orbinaut Pete ISSU Project Manager	ESA: "Diego and Romain answer your questions". The Mars500 crew is answering your questions by email and the first answers are now here. Questions are welcome from the members of the media and also from anyone else who his interested. As on a real trip to Mars this is not in real-time, questions will be relayed to them through 'mission control'. Please think carefully about your question and keep it short - the best questions will be selected and sent to the crew to answer! They will answer as many as they can but also have a busy work schedule. The address is: mars500crew@esa.int. q/to mars500: Hi, have you brought any sci-fi books/movies involving space travelling (like Alien etc)? If so, what is it like to read/watch them while being part of this eksperiment? Jarle, Norway a/from romain: Hello Jarle, We have brought with us a lot of Sci-fi books and movies. Each time that we watch one of them, we always comment it. We are much more sensible to each detail of the film or of the book. For example, we saw “2001: A Space Odyssee” a couple of weeks ago and I could really feel the loneliness and the monotony that the 2 main characters had to endure. I didn’t experience these feelings the first time that I saw this movie. Romain q/to mars500: Dear Mars 500 Crew: Thinking about you guys a lot. Wonder how you are doing? May I be frank? I would find it very hard to be away from my wife for so long...May I ask: how are you coping with missing your loved ones, partners or wives? I believe that this will deepen your personal relationships with them "back on earth"; what is important is the willingness to love, to continue to see it through, not merely the "loving", right? In Great Admiration, chaz mean Miami, FL USA a/ from romain: Hello Chaz, Each of us has a different way to cope with the distance between us and our loved ones. I tend to write them a lot of messages. I tell them what is happening here and they tell me how life is going on outside. During my studies I already spent several months away from my family so 107 days of isolation is still bearable. In one year, I’m not sure if I would have the same answer for you. Romain a/from diego: I see what you mean, I think if I had wife and/or kids it would be much more difficult for me than it is already. However, there are guys in the crew who do have this kind of family and it looks like they are handling it extremely well. It is not easy to leave out there all the people you love. Your observation is very insightful, because In my experience until now, yes, it does tighten your relationships with the people you can share this extremely particular experience with, and who are waiting for you to get out on the last day. The communication is difficult, but at the same time, I don’t usually write emails as long as I do now! Diego q/to mars500: Good morning sir Have you any kind of method to change the personal feeling of time??? Regards Nick Saltabidas a/from romain: Hello Nick, My method is very simple: I keep busy. On top of our daily work I planned other activities (review my physics lessons, continue to study the Russian language and play the guitar). I never have enough time to do everything! Another important point is that, with the crew, we rarely talk about the days left. We just focus on the week to come. Romain a/ from diego: Hello! If I understand well and you mean a way of seeing time pass faster, I do! I think time passes fast when I read or am very busy working on an experiment, or when I am working on a graphic design project in my free time. When I do this, I fell like time goes much faster. If on the other hand, for some odd reason, I wanted to slow down time, I would spend more time in the thread mill! (one of our hardest exercise machines) It never seems to end when I am on it! Thanks! Diego q/to mars500: Hello Romain, Just a note to wish you well from an old friend at Aston Martin. I was told what you are doing and I was very suprised. I thought Sotira was a challenge but this is nearly out of this world !!! I am going to the Red sea at the end of September on a live a board to do some diving. Can you receive pictures? If you can, I will send some under water pics if you would like to see them . Hope all is well Best of luck Nigel Turner, Aston Martin - Paint Engineer a/from romain: Hello Nigel, It was a real pleasure to discover your message. Please send my best regards to all the people who remember me at Aston Martin. I would be glad to receive your under water pictures. With them, you will make two persons happy because our commander (Alexey Sitev) is a professional diver and he already hanged several of his pictures on the walls. Enjoy your holidays! Romain q/to mars500: hola diego..un saludo desde cádiz de inma,juan y nuestra gatita aruca maría..que tal la comida que llevais?..cuidaros. a/from diego Hi, the food is great! Though there is some difficulty in repeating the same dishes often, and eating exactly what you need to, sometimes more than you would like! However we are coping with the situation rather well! Of course, it would be much better if we had Tortillas de Camarones from Cadiz! Thanks Hola! La comida es muy buena, aunque a veces es difícil repetir los mismos platos en intervalos de poco tiempo, y comer exactamente lo que te piden, que a veces es más de lo que quisieras. De cualquier manera hemos logrado adaptarnos bien! Por supuesto, sería mejor si pudiéramos comer Tortillas de Camarones ! Diego Last edited by Orbinaut Pete; 10-01-2010 at 10:51 PM.

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07-15-2010, 09:54 AM	#91
4throck Enthusiast !	Quote: Originally Posted by SiberianTiger ... Come on, we are on a forum for geeks. What one would expect from geeks? Hum.. It is possible to find a geek girlfriend Trust me... they exist and use pictures of Soyuz as a desktop background. As for sex/no sex... I always wonder how the 15th/16th century sailors managed during many months or years at sea....

07-15-2010, 03:21 PM	#92
Izack Non sequitur	Quote: Originally Posted by SiberianTiger Come on, we are on a forum for geeks. What one would expect from geeks? Granted.

07-25-2010, 08:49 PM	#93
SiberianTiger News Sifter	Since July 26th, Mars-500 crew will stop communicating with outside world real-time and will switch to batch audio transmission with steady increase of artificial delay to simulate the comms delay that would be there during an actual Mars mission. In addition, email channels will remain available. Also today was a birthday of Chinese experiment participant, Wang Yue. The rest of the crew congratulated him with a celebrational writing in Chinese: Also, mission CDR Alexei Sitev recorded a conrgatulatory message to all sailors of Russian Navy on the Navy Day (being a naval officer himself).

08-07-2010, 03:38 PM	#94
Orbinaut Pete ISSU Project Manager	Roscosmos PAO: "Fyodor Yurchikhin Advises Mars-500 Participants from the ISS". Quote: Flight Engineer of the International Space Station Fyodor Yurchikhin advised participants of the Mars-500 simulation, answering the question he received through ISS Mail Box which works in Memorial Space Museum of Moscow with support of Roscosmos PAO and Moscow's Department of Culture. Yurchikhin says joint resolution of the problem shall help the crew involved in the simulated mission to Mars to develop their own microclimate in the facility. "The heritage shows that all the family problems begin at the kitchen… Minor problem shall be solved first, and this will help you to achieve the goal, to complete the mission successfully", Yurchikhin says. He added that it would be useful to get together to have meals in the evening, to discuss news, sport and other topics, but to avoid talking about work. "It is easy to give advice, but it is hard to follow it. I wish you success and patience", Yurchikhin concluded.

09-03-2010, 04:40 PM	#96
Orbinaut Pete ISSU Project Manager	SPACE.com: "On Months-Long Missions, How Durable Is An Astronaut's Mind"? ---------- Post added 3rd Sep 2010 at 05:40 PM ---------- Previous post was 2nd Sep 2010 at 07:26 PM ---------- SPACE.com: "Wanted For Long Space Missions: Flexible Astronaut, Works Well With Others". As a Brit, I'm willing to work with anybody.....so long as I'm in charge!

09-16-2010, 03:56 AM	#100
SiberianTiger News Sifter	And they've made a cool photo:

11-08-2010, 07:41 PM	#105
SiberianTiger News Sifter	Take a virtual flash tour across the Mars500 complex: http://www.pano360.ru/vtours/mars-500/station/tour.html