04.11.2011, 17:16:32

Participants in the experiment during a simulated stay on the surface of Mars. Photo ©AFP

Almost astronauts

A 520-day rehearsal for a flight to Mars has ended in Moscow.

On Friday, November 4, 2011, a large-scale experiment to simulate the flight to Mars “Mars 500” was completed at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In a solemn ceremony (the European Space Agency even broadcast the ceremony live), the hatch of the test module was opened, and the six participants in the experiment officially returned to Earth.

Previous experiments

It is believed that the first experiment to simulate a long-term interplanetary flight was carried out in the USSR in 1967. Then, in the strictest secrecy, three cosmonauts were placed in a block with a partially closed life support system for 366 days (in 2010, the Roscosmos studio, together with the Rossiya TV channel, released a film dedicated to this experiment).

The purpose of the experiment was to find out what difficulties the crew might encounter during such a flight, so in 366 days the organizers included everything that could come to their mind - extreme temperature changes (heat, when participants were forced to walk almost naked, was replaced by cold), hunger , stressful situations. The experiment had to be interrupted several times due to conflicts between the participants, but the psychologists were able to obtain a certain amount of data.

After this, experiments similar in organization (though less rigid in form and with fewer days) were carried out in the 70s and 80s of the last century. In the 1990s, Roscosmos began working with the European Space Agency to prepare ESA cosmonauts for long stays on the Mir station. The culmination of this program was the experiment “Imitation of the flight of an international crew on a space station” at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For 240 days, the crew lived in three modules "EU-100", "EU-37" and "EU-50". The volume of the largest of them was about 200 cubic meters. Among other things, the arrival of cargo ships was simulated, and a large number of experiments were carried out, prepared by scientists from Russia, Japan, Germany and the USA.

Participants in the experiment celebrate Halloween. Photo from the official website of the project. Click to open photo gallery

Although one of the modules, “EU-37,” was called “Marsolet,” there was no talk of a flight to the Red Planet at that time. Mars 500, which began in 2007, in turn, was initially oriented toward a similar mission. It was conceived as a whole complex of experiments - 640 pieces. For example, while humans sat in the flight module, scientists used monkeys to study the effects of radiation, which, due to the lack of protection from the Earth's magnetic field, could be one of the main dangers during a flight to the Red Planet.

All tests were divided into three stages, tied directly to isolation experiments (this is the scientific name for the experiments that are performed on people in the IBMP). The first stage took place in November 2007. Then a group of six Russian volunteers (5 men and one woman) spent 14 days in a special module. The group included Sergei Ryazansky, Oleg Artemyev, Anton Artamonov, Alexander Kovalev, Marina Tugusheva, Dmitry Perfilov.

The second stage was carried out from March to July 2009 - a total of 105 days. Four Russians took part in it - Sergei Ryazansky, Oleg Artemyev, Alexey Shpakov, Alexey Baranov, as well as the Frenchman Cyril Fournier and the German Oliver Knickel (Ryazansky and Artemyev “flyed” for the second time). Together they conducted various experiments related, for example, to changing brain rhythms. At the end of the “flight,” each participant in the experiment earned 17 thousand dollars for participating in the project.

Main experience

The third stage, the one that ended on November 4, was originally planned to begin at the end of 2009. Technical difficulties, however, did not allow this to be done, and the “start” took place on June 3, 2010. The search for volunteers to participate in the project was carried out all over the world. As a result, six people were selected - three Russians, an Italian, a Frenchman and a Chinese. The positions between them were distributed as follows. Alexey Sitev became the crew commander, the position of doctor went to surgeon Sukhrob Kamolov, and the Frenchman Roman Schal became the flight engineer. The remaining three - Alexander Smolevsky, Diego Urbina and Wang Yu - became researchers.

The "cosmonauts" were provided with 4 main blocks - "EU-50", "EU-100", "EU-150" and "EU-250" - of various sizes and purposes. The experiment participants spent most of their time in the last three: “EU-100” was intended for conducting various kinds of experiments, “EU-150” served as a home for the volunteers, and “EU-250” was needed for storing food supplies and placing a special greenhouse. All these modules were upholstered inside with wood, which is why the overall ambiance, according to the participants in the 105-day experiment, was a bit like a bathhouse.

"EU-50" imitated a Martian landing module and was designed for 2-3 month accommodation for three people. A simulator of the Martian surface was also connected to it, inside of which (as the name suggests) the direct presence of the experiment participants on the Red Planet was simulated. Three “cosmonauts” officially “landed” on Mars on February 12, 2011 at 12:00 Moscow time. The first to “end up” on another planet were Russian Alexander Smoleevsky, Chinese Wang Yu and Italian Diego Urbina.

The first exit to the surface took place two days later. In total, the experiment participants spent 11 days on the “surface” of Mars. The organizers prepared a test for them - during the “work” one of the astronauts “broke” his arm. In their free time from work, the experiment participants read, listened to music (crew commander Alexey Sitev turned out to be a connoisseur of Russian rock - “Kino”, “DDT”, “Chaifa”, “Alice”), and worked out on exercise machines to maintain physical fitness. Wang Yu, for example, began to learn Russian.

It is noteworthy that, despite the daily compulsory exercises, doctors observing the “astronauts” discovered a noticeable decrease in physical activity. A decrease in metabolic rate has also been reported. A full report of the results will be ready in the next few days, but it is unlikely that it will be made available to the general public for review.

All participants in the experiment, with the exception of Wang Yu, will receive a monetary reward of three million rubles each. It is not yet known how Yu will be rewarded for his participation. Most of the “cosmonauts” have already announced that they will spend the money on vacation, because they essentially missed two summers. Italian Diego Urbina also said that he would buy himself a new car, and Sukhrob Kamolov said that he would spend part of the money on improving his skills. He also noted that he initially believed that the fee was quite large. “But now, having worked on board for more than 500 days, I understand that the amount is not that big,” RIA Novosti quotes the surgeon as saying.

Criticism

Even before the experiment, which cost an estimated 15 million euros (most of which was provided by Roscosmos), was completed, many scientists criticized it as futile. In particular, it was said that such experiments yield little, since essentially similar studies are already being carried out on the International Space Station. One of the most consistent critics of the experiment is cosmonaut and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valentin Lebedev.

Back in June 2009, he said in an interview with Sovetskaya Rossiya: “This is nothing more than a test of ordinary people for a long stay in a closed environment, where they are forced to improve their lives and relationships, relying only on their own strength. Everything here is conditional, like "If preparations for drifting on an ice floe in the Arctic were carried out in winter on a pond near Moscow. People involved in this experiment can at any moment refuse to continue it, go out and hug their loved ones. So such research has little relation to understanding the possibility of interplanetary flight."

In his article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta , another specialist, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yuri Karash, stated that the flight “can be justified only insofar as Russia would really set the task of flying to Mars.” This, however, is not the case, and Roscosmos has no such plans.

Andrey Konyaev

Almost astronauts

Previous experiments

Main experience

Criticism

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