Article Posted on : - Dec 07, 2011

Building housing the Mars500 isolation facility in Moscow. A ESA photo.

BEIJING (PTI): A Chinese participant in a multi-national experiment held in Russia to test the long-term effect of stress and endurance in a round-trip space mission to Mars returned to China on Tuesday.

"Finally I'm back. I feel excited and appreciate my team, who gave me power to overcome many difficulties," said Wang Yue, a trainer from China's astronaut research and training centre, upon arrival in Beijing.

Wang, 29, said he will continue research of the experiment to accumulate more experience for Chinese astronauts in the future.

After 520 days inside an isolated module that simulated a round-trip journey between Earth and Mars, Wang and another five volunteers emerged from the module last Friday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The experiment, Mars-500, started on June 3, 2010 and was sponsored primarily by Russia, China, France, and Italy.