Capricorn One

The European Space Agency's Mars 500 program passed an important milestone in their simulated mission to Mars on Valentine's day. The astronauts walked on the surface of "Mars" for the first time.

The ESA mission simulation is ambitious and necessary. But I have to say that the habitat is far more spacious, and unnecessarily wasteful of space, than I would ever have imagined. I am admittedly biased. But really, having spent as many as 124 days submerged (really submerged, from "dive, dive" to "surface, surface, surface") on a submarine 425' long by 33' wide, most of which was taken up by weaponry, with 120 of my closest friends, the Mars habitat looks like the Taj effing Mahal. My only other critique is that, really, for a 520-day mission, an all-male crew is a really bad idea. Even the US Navy has figured out that women belong on submarines. Oh well,have fun with that.

Here's the link to the Mars 500 page:
http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars500/SEMRCFOT1KG_0.html