RESEARCHERS TAKE A TRIP TO MARS

After 257 days in a locked, windowless steel capsule, researchers on a mock trip to Mars ventured from their cramped quarters in heavy space suits Monday, trudging into a sand-covered room to plant flags on a simulated Red Planet," the Associated Press reported Monday.

The image above is a still frame of video footage showing the researchers in 66-pound space suits during the February 14 simulation at the Mission Control Center in the city of Korolyov just outside Moscow.

"The all-male crew of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese entered a network of modules at a Moscow space research center last June to imitate the 520-day flight and see how they cope with the constricted, isolating conditions of space travel - minus the weightlessness," according to the AP. COLUMBIA