Mock astronauts in virtual landing

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.

The three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese entered a network of modules at a Moscow research centre last June to imitate the 520-day flight and see how they handle the constricted, isolating conditions of space travel – minus the weightlessness.