Think you could cope with being locked up in 4 windowless, metal, interlocking modules measuring less than 550 cubic metres, 24 hours a day, every day, for nearly 18 months? If that's not bad enough then how about sharing that small space with 5 other people that you barely know.

This is exactly what 6 lucky or brave or foolhardy (depending on your point of view) people will be doing from May this year, all in the name of science. But if mankind really wants to conduct a manned flight to Mars, then this is exactly what will be needed. 

Mars500, a joint project run by the European Space Agency and the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems will simulate the space flight to Mars and back again, keeping everything as true to life as possible. Once locked into the capsule the 'crew' will only have personal contact with each other, plus voice contact with a simulated mission control and occasionally from family members - and even then with a 20 minute delay built in to simulate the real time delay of a Mars mission.

The assignment will begin with all the food on-board needed for the entire duration of the experiment, the diet similar to that of the crew on the International Space Station (ISS) - and they will have to stick to rationing to make it last. The crew will be given tasks to do such as maintenance, daily exercise, and scientific experiments, plus the occasional emergency simulation thrown in for good measure. All team members will be monitored throughout the mission with recordings taken of medical, psychological and physical signs.

All 6 candidates have now been selected with the final composition being 2 Europeans, 1 Chinese, and 3 Russians, and don't you just hope that they all get along well together for the sake of their sanity! 

Click on the ESA link to discover more:
http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars500/index.html