Jul 14 2009
From The Space Library
Participants in a simulated mission to Mars, the Mars-500 project at the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP) in Moscow, completed a 105-day session locked in a series of hermetically sealed tubes. The project was a joint venture between ESA and the IMPB. In addition to the isolation, the simulation experiment included communication delays of up to 20 minutes and unexpected emergency situations. Since 31 March 2009, the Mars-500 crew, comprising four Russians, a German soldier, and a French airline pilot, had conducted approximately 70 experiments testing psychological and physical reactions to long-term isolation. The international team of scientists, representing Europe and the United States, was seeking ways to help subjects avoid mental breakdowns and other consequences that could result from prolonged monotony. For this experiment, researchers locked participants into a Soviet-era isolation chamber and observed their responses. Mission physician Aleksei V. Baranov described daily life for the crew members participating in the experiment, explaining that their work did not stop from day to day. During the rare moments when a crew member was free to relax, he remembered that he was away from home, far from loved ones, and that the schedule required that he wake up early to work every day. Baranov added that individuals find preparing for unceasing, monotonous work psychologically difficult. The experiment was the precursor to a longer simulation planned for early 2010, in which the researchers planned to isolate another six- member crew in the same capsule for 520 days.
Michael Schwirtz, “Going to Mars, But Staying Close to Home,” New York Times, 15 July 2009; Agence France- Presse, “Crew ‘Back on Earth’ After Mars Mission,” 15 July 2009.
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