The six astronauts ofMars500, the project of the Russian Institute IBMP (Institute of Biomedical Problems) and the European Space Agency (ESA) that simulates a trip to Mars, they completed one hundred days of confinement last Saturday “without any problems and within normality,” as explained by the psychologist Rosa María Baños.
The first simulated mission to Mars in real time began on June 3 in Moscow at 1:49 pm local time, when the six members of its crew entered their “spacecraft” and closed the hatch. The Europeans Diego Urbina and Romain Charles; Sukhrob Kamolov, Alexey Sitev, Alexander Smoleevskiy and Mikhail Sinelnikov of Russia, and Wang Yue of China, face a mission as close to a true space travel as possible. During your isolationthey will live and work like real astronautsThey will eat special food and perform physical exercise following the same protocols as astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The experiment will end in November 2011.
Your mission is to “travel to Mars” in 250 days, then divide into two groups,? Land on Mars and explore its surface? for a month and “return to Earth” in 230 days, all inside a special facility that simulates an interplanetary spacecraft, a lander and a Martian landscape.
The isolation module hatch will remain closed until November 2011, so the crew will have to cope with food, equipment and material previously stored inside the modules. Its compartments will only receive electricity, water and air from the outside.
A test of endurance
Mars500 is a program designed to test new technologies and, above all, to put human resistance to the test.Staying almost 18 months inside metal modules will be hard, even after undergoing an exhaustive training program with astronauts and professional divers. The astronauts live a day divided into 8 hours of work, 8 hours of free time and 8 hours to sleep, and will be able to rest on weekends, except when they are simulating special phases of the mission.
The psychological aspects of these experiments are of great interest: their bodies will have to adapt to the new conditions – a closed environment and a very confined space – which can rapidly deteriorate the mood. As an example,crew members have to exercise for two hours a day, but can only shower once a week.
This 520-day simulated journey is the last and most important of the experiments that make up the Mars500 program, which began in 2007. The first phase consisted of a 14-day simulation during which the facilities and the devices were validated. operating protocols. During the second phase, developed in 2009, four Russians and two Europeans stayed in the isolation module for 105 days.
