Scientists Begin 520-Day Simulation

An international group of scientists has launched a 520-day mission to examine the stresses of life in space in an experiment that seems to have more in common with reality TV than rocket science. The six-member crew of men will be confined to a ship-like simulator in Moscow and monitored constantly via video surveillance to test how humans would respond to a similarly long voyage to Mars. French participant Romain Charles told reporters he would mainly miss "my family, and the sun and fresh air" before beginning the experiment on Thursday. A similar experiment organized by the same Moscow institute in 2000 ran into problems when a Canadian woman said she was forcibly kissed by the Russian team captain and crew members got into a bloody fist fight.