Want to get away from it all?

[Blue_Tires]

Volunteers to begin Mars500 isolation

Would you volunteer to be locked away for 18 months in a sealed container with no windows and have only e-mail contact with the outside world?

Six men - three Russians, two Europeans and a Chinese man - have agreed to do just that in a project that will try to simulate a mission to the Red Planet.

The Mars500 study begins on Thursday at a medical institute in Moscow.

Scientists say the experiment will help them understand how humans would cope on a long journey to another world.

The project has been designed to be as realistic as possible even though some elements - such as the weightless conditions of spaceflight - cannot be recreated here on Earth.

"They will have to cope with limited consumables, for example," said Dr Martin Zell from the European Space Agency, a key partner in the project.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10197470.stm

[rurallib]

1. I volunteer

Sarah Palin. Could you extend that a couple years?