Oddly Enough Blog
News, but not the serious kind
Space dudes come “home” from stupid trip
Email 
Print
Okay, I thought this was a goofy idea 17 months ago, and I haven’t changed my mind.
Back in mid-2010, I made fun of a Russian science experiment where six guys were about to “simulate” a trip to Mars, by spending 520 days in a mock “spaceship” on Earth.
Halfway through the isolation period, three crewmen even donned bulky spacesuits to clomp around in a dark, sand-filled room, imitating the surface of Mars.
Yesterday, having gone absolutely nowhere, the six came “home.” They emerged, pale and bleary-eyed and greeted their families, just as if they had really returned from someplace.
Then they were immediately taken away for a three-day quarantine period. Really.
In fairness to these six guys, though, they did finish what they started, unlike a similar experiment in 2000.
That earlier project was a drunken disaster, aborted after two participants got into a fistfight and a third tried to forcibly kiss a female crew member. Let’s see, booze and chicks are a problem. Who could have seen that one coming?
So by comparison, I suppose these guys really distinguished themselves. Their government owes them a debt of gratitude, and should put them in another room and pretend to send them to Las Vegas or someplace. It’s the least they can do.
Join the Oddly Enough blog network
Follow this blog on Twitter at rbasler
Top: Mars500 experiment crew members react after leaving the mock spaceship in Moscow November 4, 2011. REUTERS/IBMP/Oleg Voloshin/Handout
Left: Mars500 experiment crew members receive flowers after leaving the mock spaceship in Moscow November 4, 2011. REUTERS/IBMP/Oleg Voloshin/Pool
Right: A technician participating in the Mars500 experiment, which simulates a 520-day flight to Mars, is seen at a confinement module in Moscow May 18, 2010. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Comments RSSPost Your Comment
-
Author Profile
-
Or put them in another room and have Mickey, Goofy, Cinderella and the rest of the Cartoon Crew peer in the windows at them. Let them think they’ve landed in Disney World, but can’t get out for another 17 months….
I can’t decide…
http://www.despair.com/ac.html or http://www.despair.com/potential.html
BG, you should at least grant them free admission to the GFM&DS and maybe a free cruller and coffee.
Especially when the only entertainment was a dubbed copy of Capricorn One.
As a trip, it leaves much to desire. Though when you think of it, they got free room and board, free uniforms, no traffic jams to deal with on the road and got paid for it? Then got a pretty rose when they got out as a thank you? Had the opportunity been over here, I’d have signed up for it when I was out of work! When is the next mock trip to Venus? (All the men were from Mars.)
I am gonna give it a go;
Russians back from space
Though they never left the ground
Did they still drink Tang?
I’d've gone postal after 5 days, let alone 500. Did they really give them booze on the earlier experiment?! What else would result from that than chaos?
Where’s Dave? I’ll accept ‘Daves not here!’ But, is Dave all right?
Not to downplay Cheech and Chongs comedy, but I hear that some rough play has been dealt to some of the contractors based in Afghaniland. Or at least to their compound.
I guess the question of, ‘How’s Dave?’ would be more correct, but I do worry about that rascal!
Me, too, Unca…
Dave’s safe in the US of A..
As for this exp, I give credit where its due.. They stayes with an Italian for 500 days without breaking into a fist fight.
Brava! Brava!
Hey, those guys aren’t wearing their official T-shirts, the ones that read ‘I went into pretend space for 520 days and all I got was this crappy rose’.
@Nosmo: That’s the problem with a still shot like this. What you missed was the video from this scene. Somebody started up some music, and the men started to do the Full Monty. When they unzipped their space suits, they were wearing those T-shirts underneath.
@Unca,
Thanks for the thoughts. I’m not hanging in the cave anymore, although I will go back for a bit next month.
And as far as the guys from the bogus space mission, how come none of them were wearing a clown nose? I thought that was part of the space uniform now?