The Mars-500 pseudomission will take place next year at the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The 520 days is meant to copy the length of an actual Mars mission, including the journey to and from the planet and a 30-day stay on the surface. The ESA is currently seeking six volunteers (English and Russian speakers ages 20-50 in good health with specific science backgrounds) to simulate the less fun parts of being an astronaut. Before you send in your application, New Scientist points out some possible downsides:

Boredom: The major complaint from participants in this year's 105-day mission of isolation was severe boredom. Maybe the ESA could let you take a Kindle on board, or you and your fellow fake astronauts could play a long-running RPG. But be prepared to go pretty stir-crazy.

Hating Your Podmates: In 1982 two Soyuz cosmonauts, Valentin Vitalyevich Lebedev and Anatoli Berezovoi, hated each other so much that they spent their 211-day mission in almost complete silence. 520 days is more than enough time to start hating the way someone else mouth breathes or chews their food.

Sexual Harassment: During a simulated space station mission in 2000, a Russian man tried to forcibly kiss one of the women on board. Eventually, the Russian "cosmonauts" had to be separated from the rest of the crew.

Not Actually Accomplishing Anything: Peter Suedfeld of the University of British Columbia wrote a study that suggests these faux missions aren't ideal for simulating actual mission conditions. He suggests that it would be better to study exploratory missions on Earth, such as research expeditions in Antarctica.

What's the point of a fake 500-day Mars mission? [New Scientist]

This game is based on a trilogy of novels by Russian author Alexander Zorich, which present an alternate future where the Russians end up dominating outer space. As they struggle to control their extraterrestrial colonies and work with four different alien races, you take command of a ship and help quell uprisings and explore the universe. Complete planetary systems are modeled, and you can take your ships all the way from high orbit down into the atmosphere for your peeping pleasure. Hopefully you've developed some extrasensory abilities along the way as well, because it looks like you'll need them to keep track of everything happening on-screen at once. The Tomorrow War will be out for PC gamers later this year, and with any luck there will be an English translation coming soon after.

We know for sure the first game will be based on one of the games that Ender plays during his training, but the company wants to turn this into a series, and eventually they're going to have to tell some sort of a story. Of course, in the book, the game is literally everything.

In the novel, Ender Wiggin is selected at the age of six to attend the Battle School, which the military uses with the hopes that they'll one day train a great military leader who will lead the fight against the "Buggers," an insect-like race that is at war with the humans. They do this by teaching via video games and simulations, and without spoiling things, those become extremely important. Games range from simulations computers, to what amounts to zero-gravity versions of Laser Tag.

Warners is developing the movie with Wolfgang Peterson at the helm, but they abandoned work on the game that usually accompanies every big scifi film these days. Does that mean they couldn't crack the idea and decided to leave it up to someone else? If you've read the book, you'd probably say yes.

Ender's Game In The Works [Sci Fi Wire]