Two Europeans Chosen for Mars500 Simulated Mars Mission
Module for Mars 500 Experience at IMBP. External view of Mars Descent Module.
ESA has chosen its two participants for the upcoming Mars500 experiment, which will lock six people inside of a habitat for more than 500 days to simulate a round-trip mission to Mars.
Italian engineer Diego Urbina and French engineer Romain Charles will join four other crew members in the habitat, which is located in Moscow. Six Russians and a Chinese man are vying for the other four positions. The mission will simulate every phase of a trip to the Red Planet.
Diego Urbina
Diego urbino
Age: 27 years old
Country: Italy
Resides in: Rennes, France
Current employment: Engineer.
Education:
Urbina has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electronics Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino, in Turin, Italy and a Master’s degree in Space Studies from the International Space University, in Strasbourg, France.
Experience:
Diego Urbina was a crew member at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, USA in January 2010, researching the growth of tropical plants and spacesuit constraints. He was an Attitude and Orbit Control Systems researcher for the Aramis nanosatellite at the Politecnico di Torino in 2008.
Following graduation, Urbina spent time as an outreach and educational activity organizer in the developing world. Prior to this he was an operations and astronaut training intern at the Neutral Buoyancy Facility of ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany from May to August 2009.
Urbina participated in the ‘Image Reversal In Space’ (IRIS) experiment for the ISS, supporting numerous measurements for baseline data collection and testing the experiment during ESA’s 50th Parabolic Flight Campaign in 2009.
Interests/hobbies: scuba diving, graphic design, drawing, fitness training and football.
Romain Charles
Romain Charles
Age: 31 years old
Country: France
Resides in: Saint Malo, France
Current employment: Engineer.
Education:
Obtained a Master’s degree in Engineering from the French Institute of Advanced Mechanics in Clermont Ferrand, France, which he attended from 1999 to 2004.
Experience:
Romain Charles has been working for Sotira (part of the SORA group of companies) since 2005. He is currently a Quality Manager for the company, which produces composite panels and has undertaken Quality Engineer roles within the company for the likes of Mclaren, Aston Martin and Tesla Motors. This followed a spell as a Quality Engineer for the automotive components company Mann+Hummel following graduation in 2004. This included working on projects for the Nissan company.
Interests/hobbies: books and cinema, the internet, swimming, running and scuba diving. He is also an active member of Junior Chamber International.
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