Simulated Mars mission: Crew walks on the Red Planet

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Simulated Mars mission: Crew walks on the Red Planet

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Two members of the crew in a simulated mission to Mars have completed their first walk on the surface of the Red Planet, as a part of the Mars-500 project, the Russia's Mission Control Center outside Moscow said on Monday.

15 February,2011 06:53 am

The simulated walk on Mars was conducted by Russias Alexander Smolevsky and Italys Diego Urbina, the center said, adding that the walk was completed in an hour and a half.In their walk, the two so-called marsonauts erected the national flags of Russia, China and a flag of European Space Agency (ESA) on the surface of the Mars, the Mission Control said.They also delivered speeches in Russian and English and took samples of the planets surface, it added.As scheduled plan, this was the first walk of the three walks on a mock-up of the surface of the Red Planet.The second walk will be conducted by Smolevsky and Chinese participant Wang Yue on Feb. 18, while the third walk on the planet will be conducted by Smolevsky and Urbina on Feb. 22.The six crew members of the mission have been living in the isolated spacecraft since last June.