Trip to 'Mars' takes its toll on Chinese volunteer

Beijing, Dec.7 (ANI): Wang Yue, the only Chinese volunteer in the 520-day Mars-500 experiment program, has admitted that the stay in a mock-up spacecraft has taken its toll healthwise, but given an opportunity, he would willingly do it again.

"If I have a chance to do it all over again, I'm willing to do it," the China Daily quoted the 29-year-old native from Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu province, as saying.

"But I will probably improve my communication skills in Russian, make a better plan for physical exercise and get my lost hair back," he added.

Between June 3, 2010, and Nov 4, 2011, Yue, three Russians, one French and one Italian spent 18 months in an isolated experimental facility in Moscow to test how human beings respond to the pressures of a there-and-back voyage to Mars.

Dressed in a black leather jacket, blue jeans and wearing a gray wool scarf, the young man received an ovation upon his arrival at Beijing Capital International Airport.

Hundreds of hours of recordings in the experimental facility and large numbers of samples taken from him will help scientists of China's manned space program understand the physical and psychological strains during extended space travel.

For Wang, the clearest reflection of the strains may be all the hair he lost, which he hoped to get back. He also lost 10 kilograms of weight. (ANI)