The crew of a mock trip to Mars ventured out after 257 days in a locked steel capsule today to trudge into a sand-covered room and plant flags on a planet.

A MANNED mission to Mars may be decades away, but an international team of researchers will try to experience what one might be like by locking themselves up in a windowless capsule for a year-and-half – the time needed for a round-trip to the red planet.

Russia has taken out £140m in insurance cover for possible damages when the Mir space station is dumped in the South Pacific this month.