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Mock Mars Mission Blasts Off

Experimenters will spend 105 days locked in fake spaceship

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 31, 2009 12:26 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Europe launched its first shot at a manned mission to the Red Planet today—by locking six scientists in a tiny capsule in Moscow for 105 days to simulate the voyage, the BBC reports. The volunteers, who can leave the experiment but score $20000 if they make it, will perform similar maintenance tasks and experience the same isolation and claustrophobia as real astronauts. “It is really like a real space flight without the weightlessness and the danger to our lives,” said Sergei Ryazansky, one of the would-be astronauts.

“On the inside, we will have a lack of incoming information, so it’s the science of sensory deprivation,” Ryazansky said. That includes a 20-minute delay for any communications with command to simulate the time needed for voice to travel to Earth and back. This experiment is a test run, with, a more serious 520-day simulation planned for next year.

Researchers, from left, French Cyrille Fournier, and Russians Sergei Ryazansky, and Oleg Artemyev seen at a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.
Researchers, from left, French Cyrille Fournier, and Russians Sergei Ryazansky, and Oleg Artemyev seen at a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.   (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
View of a module imitating a spacecraft at the Moscow-based Institute for Medical and Biological Problems in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.
View of a module imitating a spacecraft at the Moscow-based Institute for Medical and Biological Problems in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.   (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
Russian Oleg Artemyev closes the door of a module imitating a spacecraft in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.
Russian Oleg Artemyev closes the door of a module imitating a spacecraft in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.   (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
A staffer watches German Oliver Knickel inside a module imitating a spacecraft on monitors at the the Moscow Institute for Medical and Biological Problems in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.
A staffer watches German Oliver Knickel inside a module imitating a spacecraft on monitors at the the Moscow Institute for Medical and Biological Problems in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.   (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
From left, Sergei Ryazansky, Aleksei Baranov, Aleksei Shpakov, Cyrille Fournier, Oliver Knickel, and Oleg Artemyev before entering a module in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.
From left, Sergei Ryazansky, Aleksei Baranov, Aleksei Shpakov, Cyrille Fournier, Oliver Knickel, and Oleg Artemyev before entering a module in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 31, 2009.   (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
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COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
riffran
Mar 31, 2009 7:52 AM CDT
isolation aspect aside, I wonder how they will sheild themselves from the ever present cosmic radiation, and what form/forms of propulsion will they use..

More details on how the crew will spend their days
Telegraph (UK)

 
Russia • Mars • Moscow • astronauts • experiments • spaceflight • simulation

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