Guitar Hero is a hit for astronauts on simulated Mars mission

The crew members locked up for the Mars500 space simulation project have a whopping 520 days to perfect Guitar Hero's most challenging riffs. The Mars500 project is an initiative by the European Space Agency that simulates the effects (and duration) of a real Mars mission, all from within a massive hangar in Moscow.

The experiment necessitates total isolation within the simulated spacecraft for 12,480 hours, where the crew can mill about "four hermetically sealed interconnected habitat modules". The Mars500 crew has a wealth of DVDs and games at their disposal to remain busy and engaged, including a Wii and a full set of Guitar Hero instruments.

A rhythm game like Guitar Hero is presumably preferable to the usual seated gaming experience, both for honing fine motor skills and for requiring a little bit of movement in the confines of the fake shuttle. Since an actual mission to Mars won't be in the cards for another 20 years or so, Activision has plenty of time to resurrect the recently-axed franchise for a true test on a real space flight.

[Image credit: ESA]

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