Half-year space experiment starts

Four volunteers on Friday started a 180-day living experiment in a sealed space capsule, which will test technologies that support China's deep-space exploration projects.

The volunteers - three men and one woman - will live in a sealed capsule in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Scientists hope the experiment will cast light on how oxygen, water and food can be used and recycled under controlled conditions.

The project has been designed to test the "controlled ecological life support system", which is inspired by technologies used on China's Shenzhou spacecraft.