The European Space Agency is seeking volunteers to simulate a 17 month trip to Mars.  The whole plan, known as the Mars-500 Project, sounds a lot like the Bio Dome to me but I guess more or less you’d be stuck in a capsule of some sort for the better part of 17 months in Moscow.

Now the Russians (as always) are hedging their bets and running a second test with Monkeys.  The test will measure how the monkey’s handle the pressure of interplanetary space travel.

Twelve monkeys have flown in Russian and Soviet spaceships on previous missions.

Krosh flew in space in 1992 and is still in rude health.

Abrek and Bion were the first into space, in December 1983. After a five-day flight they landed in Kazakhstan and after rehabilitation returned to the pack.

Two years later the monkeys Verny and Gordy spent seven days in space.

In 1987 Dryoma and Yerosha spent two weeks in orbit. After returning from space Dryoma was presented to Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

After that there were three two-week flights: in 1989, 1992 and 1996. Then the project stopped – Russia did not have enough money for the programme. Now experiments are conducted on Earth under conditions which simulate weightlessness.

Sixteen-year-old space veteran Krosh is a star of the institute.

“Old man Krosh is about 60 years old, if we translate his monkey age to a human life span. He is very active. He responds well to food and is aggressive with his female partners,” says Ms Shaginyan.

“After rehabilitation he produced offspring. And that’s proof that spaceflight did not harm his health,” she added.

Yes, proof indeed.  My money’s on the monkey’s.  Considering that monkey’s already control New Dehli we should all know this can only end one way:  Planet of the Apes.