China Ends 180-Day Human Space Survival Experiment

The six-month long space survival experiment concluded on Wednesday with the four volunteers exiting the sealed capsule in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province. The four volunteers, three men and one woman, took part in this experiment designed to determine how well food, water, and oxygen can be used and recycled under controlled conditions. The test of the “controlled ecological life support system“ was inspired by technology currently used in China’s Shenzhou spacecraft. The sealed capsule has a floor space of 370-square meters, and is divided into eight compartments, including living quarters, storage space and a greenhouse. The volunteers cultivated 25 different kinds of plants inside the capsule, including wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, soybeans, peanuts, lettuce, edible amaranth and Chinese cabbage, among others. The plants are part of a larger ecological system that helps recycle and regenerate oxygen and water, and will reduce the depe