Volunteers ‘return’ from Mars after 520 days in capsule

SIX volunteers will emerge blinking into the outside world this morning after spending almost 18 months in isolation at a Russian research centre to test the effects on humans of a flight to Mars.

The six men, who have spent 520 days in a capsule in a car park outside the Moscow institute, will open the hatch of their module that slammed shut on June 3, 2010, before being taken for a barrage of medical tests.

The experiment simulated blast off in June last year and landing on Mars in February, with volunteers carrying out spacewalks in full space gear in a sand-filled enclosure before setting off on the long journey back to Earth.