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An experience 'out of this world'

Top: Journalists watch Wang Yue (left), 28, an instructor at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, "walk" on the Red Planet on Friday with Russia's Alexander Smoleyevsky during the Mars-500 experiment at the Korolev Space Mission Control Center outside Moscow. The experiment involves six volunteers who have already spent eight months living in cramped isolation as the Russian Space Federation simulates the loneliness of a manned flight to Mars. The project gets its name because it follows the duration of a human mission to the planet in the future. Above: It's not all hard work as Wang plays the drums with backing from the band of "astronauts" in this file photo by Xinhua taken on June 12, 2010. See story on page 3. Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP