The European Space Agency and the Russian Institute of Biomedial Problems are scheduled to run a joint 520-day mock Mars expedition this year aimed to study the effects of extreme isolation and confinement on 12 volunteers.
Neither was unexpected, but the details improve understanding of atmospheric cycles on present-day Mars, which helps with estimating how the cycles may have operated in the past.
But what's novel about the CEAC design is that it incorporates a bio-regenerative life-support system -- the kind of technology that could one day not only feed an outpost on the moon or Mars, but also provide it with oxygen and recycle its water.
Dr. LEVINE: Yes, the labeled-release experiment, the principal investigator was Gil Levin, and Gil to this day thinks that his experiment gave evidence of microbial life on the surface ofmars.
"Perhaps one day a student selected for the Red Rover Goes To Mars project will become one ofthe first astronauts to actually land on Mars itself, " Glenn said.