A team of researchers today began a marathon space flight simulation in Moscow that will keep them locked in a windowless cage for for nearly a year and a half - the time of a journey to the Red Planet and back.
While the experiment, conducted jointly by Russia, China and the European Space Agency, will not involve weightlessness, it will try to tackle some of the psychological challenges of a real trip — particularly the stress, claustrophobia and fatigue.
The six-member, all-male crew - three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese - were confident the 520-day mission would be a success.
Diego Urbina, the Italian-Colombian member, said it would mean “accomplishing dreams about the future, doing something that no human has done before.”
Psychologists said the simulation could be even more demanding that a real flight because the crew will not experience any of the euphoria or dangers of actual space travel. They have also warned that months of space travel would push the team to the limits of endurance as they grow increasingly tired of each other.
Well aware of this hazard, crew members equipped themselves accordingly. For instance, Frenchman Romain Charles said he was taking a guitar so he could entertain the other team members.
The main task of the Mars-500 experiment, by the Moscow-based Institute for Medical and Biological Problems, will study the effects of long isolation to better understand how a real space crew should cope with stress and fatigue.
The experiment is at Russia’s premier space medicine centre. The “spaceship” is several interconnected modules with a total volume of 20,000 cubic feet and a separate built-in imitator of the Martian surface for a mock landing.
The researchers will communicate with the outside world via internet - delayed and occasionally disrupted to imitate the effects of space travel. They will eat canned food similar to that currently offered on the International Space Station and take a shower once every 10 days - mimicking space conditions. The crew will have two days off in a week, except when emergencies are simulated.
The ESA said the crew will also regularly play video games as part of the agency’s project to develop software to interact with crews on future space missions.
Other crew members include Sukhrob Kamolov (32), Alexander Smoleyevsky (33) and Alexey Sitev (38) - all Russians - and Wang Yue (26), from China.
For mission captain Sitev, the experiment means separation from his wife just a few weeks after the two married.
AP