Martian exploration in the near futureCourtesy NASAFour Europeans have signed up to join several Russian cosmonauts for a grueling 18 months stint living inside an earthbound metal tube in a project called Mars500. Two entrants will be eliminated, but the lucky erstwhile astronauts who make the cut will be part of a real-time test to see how humans fare physically and psychologically under the stress of a year-and-a-half journey to the planet Mars and back. All food, water, and essentials will be locked inside the tube with the participants for the duration of the fake expedition. The simulation - which is being run by Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) - will begin in May and include an excursion on the planet's "surface" (actually another adjacent tube) by three of the cosmonauts. Here's the full story.