It's bad enough, it would seem from reality television, to spend a few weeks in the same house as only a few others, but imagine spending your time, with five others, for 520 days, in a shipping container with barely enough space to stretch your legs. This is the setup the European Space Agency has created to test the psychological and physiological effects of such isolation which would be required in a journey to Mars. Two crew members have already been chosen, and once four more are found, the 'journey' will begin.
There will be communication with the outside world via radio and email, but radio communications will be delayed a full 20 minutes as they would be on a real interplanetary mission and emails will take twice that time to get through. Both will be disrupted periodically, because what's the point of locking six men in a container if you don't mess with their heads a bit?
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-05/first-crew-members-selected-520-day-simulated-mars-mission - via mentalfloss
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by nmiller.
http://www.popsci.com.au/2010/05/first-crew-members-selected-for-520-day-mars-mission-simulation/
I hope that they'll hose out the blood at the end of the "mission".