European Astronauts Return from “Mars” Experiment

Quick, someone warn them about Amy Winehouse.

After nearly a year-and-a-half in isolation, the six participants aboard the Mars500 space experiment have returned to their families. For 520 days, they have been stuck on a “virtual trip” to the red planet just outside Moscow. They have been living in an isolated tubular container without windows where they have been monitored by various cameras and subject to simulated crises and staged experiments. The goal was to see how stress, isolation and boredom affect the human mind. And to think: they could have just gone to see Al Gore.