Survive 438 Days on 'Mars' By 99.908.667 USD

Six cosmonauts from Russia, Italy, France and China, managed to break the record for staying the longest space mission in a simulated landing on Mars of 438 days.

Using the "plane" called Mars500, surviving on granola bars and pasta and minimal contact with family and relatives. This simulation was conducted at the Institute of Biomedical Moscow, Russia, and last approximately 17 months. The plan, the mission will end when the day 520.

If the last full up to 520 days, then each receive U.S. $ 100 million (Rp853 billion). However, until Sunday, August 14, 2011 local time, six and broke the record in the 438 days that had been held real cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov.

For more information, Polyakov is the record holder for endurance in space by spending 437 days orbiting the Earth in 1995.

During 438 days, the six astronauts feel like life on Mars with the natural conditions are adjusted to the original. The cosmonauts worked on a volume of enclosed space of 550 cubic meters, without windows, and are observed by doctors and psychologists.

From The Australian, August 15, 2011, each astronaut has a small bed, a desk and a pair of underpants. There was no bathroom in the simulation space. To clean themselves into a room like a sauna room and use paper towels to wash all the dirt.

Although only a simulation, the experiment was hailed by Polyakov as a cosmonaut who was never really into outer space. "Now is not the time to calculate how much time has passed, but how much time is left. This (simulation) have a positive effect," Polyakov said.

The six cosmonauts involved three of them from Russia, that is, Aleksandr Smoleevskiy, Sukhrob Sitev Kamolov and Aleksi. And the other three are Diego Urbina (Italy), Wang Yue (China), and Romain Charles (France).

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