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Six astronauts of the Mars500 crew has spent 438 days on a simulated space mission. That's a record-breaking time and they haven't even left earth. We go to Moscow for details.
A group of six astronauts set a new record for space flight.
As of Sunday, they have spent 438 days in simulated space.
That's enough to have made 73 return trips to the moon.
And they haven't moved beyond the outskirts of the Russian capital, Moscow.
The Mars500 crew is still continuing the simulated space mission.
They're aiming for one-and-a-half years, or 520 days of isolation.
That's a far cry from the isolation period of 105 days completed earlier in 2009.
Their mock spacecraft makes for a cramped living space - just 1,722 square feet - in a hangar outside Moscow.
This Mars500 experiment is the first full-duration simulation of a manned flight to Mars.
It tests the biggest unknowns of deep space travel, particularly the mental and physical strains of such a journey.
Project head Alexander Suvorov Explains the new experimental methods.
[Alexander Suvorov, Project's Chief Operating Officer]:
"We are implementing some new methods which have not been used earlier, but only in our experiment. Although the main results will be for sure assessed later, we can now judge on the reports of the mission members, and we also know now from the experiment analysts that the experiment brings very interesting results for them, as well as for crew members."
The Mars500 crew has six members.
Two more Russians partake in the trip, along with two Europeans and one Chinese.
The crew are due to touch down in November, when they will complete their 520-day mission.
