Russian Scientists Plan Simulated Mission to Mars

EzRag writes "According to this article in New Scientist, Russian scientists are preparing for a simulated mission to Mars, with six cosmonauts crammed into approx. 400 sq. meters for the length of the (simulated) journey. They'll bring with them all the food they'd need, and will recycle air and water. They will not, however, be exposed to simulated solar radition."

I hope they remember...

[MarvinMouse]

to delay the communications by the amount of time that the distance between the ship and earth would be simulated to be.

I know it would be frustrating as hell to the people on the outside to do that (when they know they don't have to.) But it could have significant effects psychologically to have the astronauts able to communicate with earth, but only incredibly slowly. If they had a mechanical problem that they needed to msg home for help on how to fix for example, they'd have to wait many minutes before they got the info.

As well, learning more about how to handle the delay will lead to more efficient, better written requests and reports since the "astronauts" wouldn't be able to chat in realtime with earth. It would be almost like a return to the days of communicating with the pony express.

Re:I hope they remember...

[Andy_R]

well, if you bothered to RTFA, you would know that the experiment is being run by the Institute of Biological and Medical Problems in Moscow, and whole point of the it is to investigate the psychological effects of isolation, communication delays and medical self-reliance.

Re:I hope they remember...

[MarvinMouse]

No need to be offensive.

Since I RTFA, I know that they didn't mention communication delays very much.

I actually was just thinking that it would be an interesting aspect to study. Especially from the Psychological and Sociological aspects.

As well, it would just be interesting, since modern people are very used to quick communication.

Re:I hope they remember...

[aridhol]

I don't know if this is how it's actually working, but if I were setting it up, I'd institute the delay in the communication systems themselves. Remember, this is simulating a round trip. The software can progressively increase the delay, then decrease it again. Operators outside don't have to worry about replying too soon - they can reply as soon as they get the message. Their reply will then go through the delay system.

Of course, they've probably already thought of this, or something like it. But t

Re:I hope they remember...

[barakn]

If they had a mechanical problem that they needed to msg home for help on how to fix for example, they'd have to wait many minutes before they got the info.

That's what happens when you call up just about any hardware or software support/customer-service department on the planet. You could save a lot of money by just interviewing Microsoft customers.

A Good Old Fashioned Future?

[MrResistor]

Didn't I read a short story about this? Or was it the Chinese who were doing it?

I sure hope this experiement goes better than that one did.

Simulated Budget

[egoff]

No word yet if they'll have a simulated Duma suddenly cut the simulated exploration budget half way through the simulated mission.

been done

[Anonymous Coward]

Crammed into a windowless room with no contact with humans other than by a video screen and other communications devices.

Where have I heard about this before.

Oh yeah, my job.

Re:been done

[hplasm]

Didn't the KGB have a similar setup, with many subjects- minus the communications, of course?

I've ran this same simulation many times.

[jhouserizer]

I ran this same simulation many times, as a kid. I had to call over the neighbor kids to have them play the parts of the Martians.

Re:I've ran this same simulation many times.

[L. VeGas]

Me too. One year I stayed in my room all summer. I only left when Mom made me massage her feet.

No radiation, no (no gravity)....

[wowbagger]

No solar radiation.

No absense of gravity.

No micrometeorite punctures.

Let's see, what else won't be an accurate simulation?

This sounds to me like it might be good for psychological research, and possible some life support systems work, but as for really simulating a trip....

I'd rather see somebody, anybody, start working on a real, permanently manned lunar base. You can at least BEGIN to simulate a trip then, while still being only a few days away from home if things go wrong.

But the Moon is no longer considered "sexy" by The Powers That Be.

Re:No radiation, no (no gravity)....

[skwirlmaster]

Well it may not be exactly accurate in a physical sense, but it will be a start. These people will be off of the Earth for at least 1.5 yrs (9 months each way). That, and the communications problems are the only really _NEW_ aspect to going to Mars. There is one person who was in space for close to that long, but He is an individual not a group, and he was close to the Earth. In that respect it will be valuable research. I think it may also help narrow down what things that have slipped or have been forgo

400 square meters?

[Andy_R]

Experts say that once they have found a crack team of 2 dimensional cosmonauts able to live in the 400 square meters provided, they will have solved one of the major problems of space travel, namely the cumbersome insistence of previous space travellers on 3 the provision of dimensional living spaces.

Re:400 square meters?

[kfx]

That's exactly what I thought when I saw it, flatlander cosmonauts! Incredible!

Bones and gravity

[Red_Winestain]

They also won't get the effects of extended periods of weightlessness. One of the major problems of prolonged absence of gravity is a loss of bone density. Women lose bone density faster than men. In neither group does this effect reverse much. When the first people to Mars return, they won't be able to function on earth again: none of their bones will be strong enough.

If you don't think this is a problem, check out the recent findings of bone density loss, especially in women, in peer-reviewed journals.

Re:Bones and gravity

[sigep_ohio]

But if their craft created an artificial gravity(say through rotation), then most of their time away from earth would not be in the absence of gravity. While artificial gravity probably would not be 1g, even say .5g would be imo sufficient to sustain a reasonable bone density.

Re:Bones and gravity

[dacarr]

Sir Arthur Clarke's solution as demonstrated in 2001 and 2010 seems to be viable though - put a sort of centrifugal gravity generator into the ship in a common area.

Re:Bones and gravity

[drudd]

The real problem is we only have data for long-term effects of standard gravity, and of microgravity.

We need to keep people on the moon for a couple of years to understand how 1/6 gravity will affect bone density.

Doug

Guess that makes you a genius

[A nonymous Coward]

Bet they never thought of that, they probably had some boring idea of testing what they could, one step at a time. Say, why don't we extend your brilliant observation, it would be much better to test everything at once, no reason to add just weightlessness to the test, why not let's test the whole kit and kaboodle all at once, radiation, electronics, rocket engines, guidance, political stability at home .... say, sounds just like the real thing, why don't we just run the whole damned mission without any pa

Wow, hard not to admrie that....

[OwnerOfWhinyCat]

It's neat to see any country doing the research that has little practical appliation and doesn't get them any "Firstness! (or on the moon, or in orbit) notoriety." It leaves me with hope that the days when the space program was a thinly veiled military weapons development program (in many countries), are behind us, and that the research that continues, is work toward the more noble goal of exploring a little more of the universe than an 8000 mile across ball of mud has to offer.

Simulated mission?

[dacarr]

Pray, could I enlist characters out of my wife's copy of The Sims?

In response

[eap]

Angry Russian citizens have planned simulated protests over the need to spend more money on domestic issues.

I wonder...

[cachorro]

Will this be like the American simulated moon landing [primeline-america.com]?

Re:I wonder...

[Stween]

Why can I see many other similar posts about the supposedly faked moon landings cropping up?

There are many counter arguments for all arguments that can be put on the table by the conspiracy theorists. Give it up, already.

400 sq. meters?

[AlgebraicSpore]

This may be overly semantic but isn't one of the benefirs of space travel that you can talk in volume instead of area. With the zero gravity environment you can effectivle get almost two rooms out of one since the roof can be used as another floor, as well as the walls since you can not really orient yourself up or down. Wouldn't this make quite a bit of difference in the mock situation? I mean it would give more room for both people and supplies. Perhaps they have found a way to get past this, but I do not

Re:400 sq. meters?

[wisdom_brewing]

400 square metres is a VERY large area, easily enough for 6 people to live in comfortably... my question would be how much of it would be taken up for storage of food, equipment, etc... and how big would the "space ship" have to be to accomodate such a project? i guess it would have to be built in space, the ISS gives a nice base

ping

[wisdom_brewing]

comunication delays of 30 minutes? the sun is what? a couple light minutes away? was it 8 or am i confusing it with light seconds from the moon? anyway... imagine the lag... 30 minutes one way, 30 the other... thats something like 3600000 ms, good enough for a decent game of quake? definitely