PIX4640067: Crew of the Mars500 experience - Mars500 experiment crew - The Mars500 experience is a Martian mission simulation that began on June 3, 2010. The crew locked up for 520 days consists of six people. They are Italian-Colombian Diego Urbina (27) and Frenchman Roman Charles (31) selected by ESA, Russian Sukhrob Kamolov (32), Alexey Sitev (38), Alexandr Smoleevskiy (33) and Chinese Wang Yue (26). March 500 520-day isolation crew (Diego Urbina and Romain Charles from Europe, Sukhrob Kamolov, Alexey Sitev, Alexandr Smoleevskiy and Wang Yue from China) photographed just before the entry to the facility at 13:49 local time in Moscow (11:49 CET) on 3 June 2010. They will stay in the facility for more than 17 months simulating a mission to Mars / Bridgeman Images
PIX4639561: Permanent station between Mars and the Earth - Artist view - Mars cycler and manned maneuvering units - Artist view - Mars Cycler arrives near the Earth. Astronauts are conducting an extravehicular exit. Mars Cycler is a space station placed in orbit between Mars and Earth whose trajectory would alternate between Mars and Earth. Once positioned in orbit, this gravitational assistance vessel would use very little fuel. This project would make a permanent link between the two planets. A Mars cycler swings by the Earth and onward to Mars while two astronauts in manned maneuvering units (AKA, MMUS) watch from afar. A Mars cycler is a permanently orbiting vehicle with a path that alternately brings it near Earth and Mars. Once a cycler has been accelerated into orbit it continues on its own momentum, going back and forth between the two planets, only requiring propellant for occasional course adjustments. A one-way trip between Earth and Mars involves six to eight months of space travel, therefore a large and well-equipped Mars cycler would offer space explorers, and possibly even space tourists, better accommodations for these long journeys. Smaller spacecraft would ferry travelers between the planets and the cycle / Bridgeman Images
PIX4639640: Astronauts on Phobos - Touching Phobos - Astronauts from the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), an autonomous space chair, uncover the surface of the Phobos satellite. An astrogeologist in a space suit and manned maneuvering unit (MMU) makes the first human contact with Mars' asteroid-like moon Phobos. On the upper right is another free-ranging astrogeologist descending towards the surface. On the left at a distance of several hundred yards is an Orion-class command module. The command module has ferried the astrogeologists to Phobos from their living accommodations in Mars orbit. At 5,800 miles away Mars itself looms large, nearly filling the entire sky. Phobos' gravity is so low that its surface could be explored like scuba divers floating over the ocean's bottom / Bridgeman Images
TEC4639794: Royal greenhouses, Avenue du Parc in Laeken, Belgium. In the 19th century, glass and metal as new building materials allowed the construction of a new type of building: the greenhouse. King Leopold II (1835-1909) entrusted the architect Alphonse Balat (1818-1895) with the construction of an ideal glass palace, completed 1873. Open to the public three weeks a year, the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken house an exceptional collection of plants, some dating back to Leopold II. Photography 30/04/06. / Bridgeman Images
TEC4639804: The royal greenhouses of Laeken in Belgium. Achievement 1873. In the 19th century, glass and metal, as new building materials, allowed the construction of a new type of building: the greenhouse. King Leopold II (1835-1909) entrusted the architect Alphonse Balat (1819-1895) with the construction of an ideal glass palace. Open to the public three weeks a year, the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken house an exceptional collection of plants, some dating back to Leopold II. Photography 30/04/06. / Bridgeman Images
TEC4639861: Royal greenhouses, Avenue du Parc in Laeken, Belgium. In the 19th century, glass and metal as new building materials allowed the construction of a new type of building: the greenhouse. King Leopold II (1835-1909) entrusted the architect Alphonse Balat (1818-1895) with the construction of an ideal glass palace, completed 1873. Open to the public three weeks a year, the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken house an exceptional collection of plants, some dating back to Leopold II. Photography 30/04/06. / Bridgeman Images
PIX4640287: Space lift on the Moon - Artist's view - Lunar elevator ascending - A space lift leaves from the Moon to reach its destination at a point in Lagrange. A manned lunar space elevator ascends from the surface of the Moon riding a 35,000 - mile - long tether anchored at the other end to a counterweight in a Lagrange point in space. In this image the elevator is approximately 3,000 miles above the lunar surface, having taken approximately 50 hours to reach this point / Bridgeman Images
PIX4640626: Space tourism - Artist's view - Cruise shuttle in low earth orbit - Artist's view of a space shuttle of the future in orbit around the Earth. A reusable space tourism “” cruise””” shuttle orbits the earth at an altitude of approximately 250 miles. This spacecraft is 75 feet long by 55 feet wide. / Bridgeman Images
PIX4640659: Space tourism - Artist's view - Cruise shuttle in low earth orbit - Artist's view of a space shuttle from the future to the International Space Station (ISS). A reusable space tourism “” cruise””” shuttle rendezvouses with the International Space Station (ISS). This shuttle is 75 feet long by 55 feet wide. The ISS is about 360 feet by 240 feet, or slightly larger than a football field / Bridgeman Images