On April 20, 2013 the 129th crew with Nicolay Dzis-Voynarovskiy as commander started its work at Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, USA. Expedition participants are going to take part in international program simulating life of the first Mars settlers.
This crew is the first one made up of Russian participants only.
According to Dzis-Voynarovskiy the crew will test new variant of “Selenokhod” automotive Moon robot with which some of Team Russia members take part in international competition. As conditions of the competition established by X PRIZE fund with the aid of Google Company say the participants have to construct unmanned device at their own expense. By late 2015 the device has to reach the Moon surface, pass at the least 500 meters and send high resolution video and photos to the Earth.
Mars settlers’ life simulation is a long-term international experiment of Mars Community, non-governmental organization with its headquarters in USA and about 4000 members from 50 countries all over the world , – RIA Novosti states.
