I got a tweet from Mars! (kinda)

Here's a tweet sent to me by Diego Urbina an astronaut currently just starting out on the 520 day round trip to Mars. Well actually he's sealed in a simulated spaceship in Moscow rather than the real thing. But as you can see the team are trying to replicate all the conditions of spaceflight. I was keen to know if that included rationing water and it does as the tweet from Diego reveals.

@DavidACGregory we have wet wipes during 9 days and shower on the 10th #mars500

There are no windows in the "spaceship" and the food is going to become authentically monotonous. Ground control even simulate the 20 minute delay you'd expect in communications. The time taken for the radio signal to travel from earth to the ship. That means Diego isn't twittering in real time instead he gets a Word document with tweeted questions. He then types in his answers and sends the file back and then someone else sends that out via Twitter.

You can read more about the mission and previous simulated long duration space flights here. Interestingly this mission has an all male crew (not intentional it is claimed) and no alcohol (very intentional).

And if you have a question for Diego Urbina then you can send him one and follow his experience by clicking here.

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