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"Esa is collaborating with Russia on a unique experiment due to begin next year at Moscow's Institute for Biomedical Problems. The study aims to simulate the tough conditions of a trip to the Red Planet for six volunteers.
They will be locked up for 17 months in an airtight capsule, eating sterile food and breathing processed air. Scientists will study the behaviour of the "crew" as they try to live together in a space measuring 550 cubic metres (19,250 cubic feet).
"Boredom may be their biggest problem," Bruno Gardini, Aurora project manager at the European Space Agency, told BBC News.
"Over 500 days, their activity is fairly low. So what do they do? They get on each other's nerves."
Group dynamics
It sounds a bit like the basis for a reality TV show. But the simulated mission, due to begin in late 2008, will help scientists better understand the demands of long-haul space travel as well as informing astronaut selection"
Now if you're going to box up 6 people for a year and a half. then do the same to bring them home again, it occurs to me that the last types you want to select are the current astronaut types - go getter ex pilots with rather large and bruisable egos.
No, what you want is a bunch of laid back geeks for whom boredom is no enemy at all as long as they have Halo 3 or whatever the latest is. The main question is: Could you get the bastards to unplug themselves and do anything useful once they got there?
Should we send geeks to Mars? 
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