Alexey Sitev the 39 year old Russian marine engineer who postponed his honeymoon for 18 months, after only two weeks of marriage before embarking as commander of simulated mission to Mars, has returned. Although Sitev did not actually leave, he has returned from his confinement on the Mars500 simulated voyage to Mars and back taking a total of 520 days to complete. The experimental simulation is unprecedented in isolating six highly trained professionals for such duration, and subjected to elaborate and often invasive experimentation. Mars-500 is an international multi-part experiment simulating a manned flight to Mars, with a crew of volunteers living and working in a mockup spacecraft with limited supplies of consumables. The objective of the simulation is to yield medical and psychological data on the effects of long-term isolation. Sitev is a specialist in life support systems.

 

Inspired by Ian Sample & Miriam Elder http://ow.ly/7kegx image source ESA http://ow.ly/7kevh