The Mars500 expedition organized by the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency) had virtually reached Mars a few days ago and it was time to simulate the descent to Mars and to explore the area near the lander.

The Martian surface has been replicated in a part of the complex used for the mission of the length of about 10 m and a width of about 6 m. To be precise it’s a Martian place called Gusev crater that was chosen to be reproduced because it was explored in 2004 by NASA’s Spirit probe and it’s believed that there are clues about the ancient planet’s history at a time when the water flowed freely.

Three of the virtual astronauts, Russian Alexandr Smoleevskiy, Italian Diego Urbina and Chinese Wang Yu, simulated the descent to Mars. The first walk with its exploration lasted a total of about three hours during which Smoleevskiy and Urbina have taken some soil samples to analyze it.

Now the three virtual astronauts will spend another two weeks in the small lander and that will provide additional information to the psychological study of the mission as the lander is very small and even the chances for physical exercise are limited.

Over the next few days two more walks will be carried out on the reproduction of the Martian soil then the three virtual astronauts will go back to the spacecraft that awaits them in orbit with the other three colleagues.

This first exploration together with the other two will also allow the gathering of various information on the usability of the space suits the virtual astronauts are using as they obviously must be able to perform all the tasks required by the mission while wearing them.

Although this is a simulation, the Mars500 mission is giving us an idea of how a real Mars mission will be and we hope that sooner or later it will be organized. In the meantime we wait for the news about the next phases of this virtual expedition.