“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.”

“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.”