Chinese students will live in a laboratory simulating a lunar-like environment for up to 200 days as Beijing prepares for its long-term goal of putting humans on the moon.
Four postgraduate students from the capital's astronautics research university Beihang entered the 160-square-metre (1,720-square-foot) cabin—dubbed the "Yuegong-1", or "Lunar Palace"—on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The volunteers will live in the sealed lab to simulate a long-term, self-contained space mission with no input from the outside world, Xinhua said.
Human waste will be treated with a bio-fermentation process, and experimental crops and vegetables grown with the help of food and waste byproducts.
The cabin represents the "world's most advanced closed-loop life-support technology so far", state broadcaster CCTV said.
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