Mars 500 mission: one year on

The would-be astronauts - three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman, and an Italian - have lived and worked to a strict timetable since they clambered into a cramped capsule in a Moscow car park on June 3, 2010, Kazinform cites RIA Novosti..

The European Space Agency (Esa) and Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems experiment, called Mars 500, is designed to test how humans can cope with the stress of a return trip to the Red Planet.

With only limited contact with the outside world and no access to natural light, the men have been undergoing regular medical and psychological checks to see just how well they were doing.

The crew, who spent 250 days working on maintenance and scientific experiments before a 30-day stint performing tasks on a simulated Martian surface, are currently on their "return trip" to Earth.

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