Yesterday, Russian engineers cracked the wax seal on a metal hatch, and six men emerged from the simulated space capsule where they had spent the last 105 days in experiment designed to simulate the isolation of a manned trip to Mars. The experiment is part of a larger project dubbed “Mars 500.” The three months the men spent in isolation are a precursor to another simulation to take place in 2010, when another crew will submit themselves to 520 days in isolation, the projected time it would take for a return trip to Mars [ABC News].
The four Russians, one German, and one Frenchman were chosen from among 6,000 applicants, and were paid about $21,000 each for participating. Inside the mock capsule, they conducted experiments to test their physical and psychological reactions to the isolation, and performed many of the tasks that would keep Mars-bound astronauts busy. They had no television or Internet and their only link to the outside world was communications with the experiment’s controllers — who also monitored them via TV cameras — and an internal e-mail system. Communications with the outside world had 20-minute delays to imitate a real space flight [AP].
The six men seemed cheerful and none the worse for wear after their months of isolation, and reported that there were no serious conflicts among the crew, unlike some previous experiments. Said French volunteer Cyrille Fournier: “We had an outstanding team spirit throughout the entire 105 days” [SPACE.com]. But the men did say that they missed their families and occasionally felt ground down by the monotonous work routine. Among some of their activities: The Mars500 volunteers conducted daily medical checks, exercised, prepared microwavable foods from each others’ countries, played poker and collected their own urine for analysis. They also grew some of their own food, such as lettuce, radishes and cabbage, to supplement the astronaut-style pre-packaged meals [SPACE.com].
Some have criticized the project, noting that the test subjects knew that they could exit the capsule if things got hairy; the experiment also made no attempt to replicate some important physical factors that astronauts on a real trip to Mars would experience, like weightlessness and increased radiation exposure. “This is nothing but a test for a long isolation of average people,” a two-time cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev wrote in an opinion column…. “Such an experiment has only vague relation to understanding the possibility of interplanetary flight” [AP].
There are no firm plans for a manned trip to the Red Planet, but the European Space Agency and NASA have indicated that they may aim for such a mission in about 30 years.
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Image: ESA
July 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
At first I was thinking, “21 thou ain’t bad for a little over 3 months of living in a tin can” and then I read that whole “No internet” thing and realized someone of my generation would never survive that thing sane… especially a near two-year stay.
” the experiment also made no attempt to replicate some important physical factors that astronauts on a real trip to Mars would experience, like weightlessness and increased radiation exposure. ” Yeah, but we’re already studying that on the ISS for 6 months at a time…. and seriously, the guy is going to criticize this endeavour because they didn’t have the foresight to invent anti-gravity for the capsule?
Anyway, by the time (well, hopefully) we’ll be able to better shield ourselves from the intrasolar radiation we’ll experience on the trip.
And hopefully we wont spent vast trillions of dollars sending for to that planet without a good reason (like having a fully functioning ground station built and tended by robots long before our fragile meatbags are sent there).
July 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
There is also an interesting lack of non-male people in this experiment. where “interesting” = “disappointing.”
July 15th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Maybe they need to replicate this experiment by installing the “tin can” on the ISS? Wouldn’t that take into the factors of weightlessness and radiation?
July 15th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
so check it out, four russians, one german, and a frenchman are locked in a capsule for three months…bada ch!
July 15th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Four Russians, a German and a Frenchmen? I think we know who the “b/i/t/ch/” was!
July 15th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Lynne — there’s a funny story about that, where “funny” = “sad.”
A similar isolation experiment in 1999 at the same Moscow institute included a female volunteer, but the project ran into trouble. At a New Year’s Eve party, one of the Russian men forcefully tried to kiss the Canadian woman, provoking angry talk of sexual harassment. So for the recent experiment, the organizers decided to avoid potential problems by making it a brodeo.