Human space exploration and Aurora

ESA has committed itself to human spaceflight in the Aurora programme in its declared aim of eventually, following visits by robotic spacecraft, landing human beings on Mars by 2030. In 2004 the US Vision for Space Exploration also stated the necessity for manned Moon bases which would act as an assembly point for spacecraft to go to Mars.

Given the requirements and costs of such missions these may only be achieved through international co-operation, as envisioned in the Global Exploration Strategy. Such prolonged periods of isolation, reduced gravity or total weightlessness and confinement will impose huge mental, physical, emotional and psychological demands on any astronauts who undertake such missions.

In September 2007, as part of its participation in the Mars 500 (link opens in a new window) project, ESA called for volunteers to undergo a voluntary period of confinement for 520 days, equal to a journey to Mars and back incorporating a period of 30 days stay on the surface. This was preceded by a pilot study of 105 days duration which which started in 2009 for which two European and four Russian participants were identified. The Mars 500 project finally got under way on 3rd June 2010 in Moscow with the six-man crew being sealed into their simulated spacecraft until November 2011. Studying the effects of simulated conditions like these will help to optimise the conditions for future interplanetary travel.

• Human space exploration and the UK