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Mock trip to Mars in landing simulation
Source: Agencies |
February 15, 2011, Tuesday
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AFTER 257 days in a locked steel capsule, researchers on a mock trip to Mars ventured from their cramped quarters yesterday in heavy space suits, trudging into a sand-covered room to plant flags on a simulated Red Planet.
The crew of a Chinese, three Russians, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian entered a network of modules at a Moscow research center last June to imitate the 520-day flight and see how they cope with the constricted, isolating conditions of space travel - minus the weightlessness.
Several participants donned 30-kilogram suits to perform yesterday's mock landing in an adjacent capsule. The crew planted the flags of China, Russia and the European Space Agency, took "samples" from the ground and conducted faux scientific experiments.
"All systems have been working normally. The crew are feeling fine," said Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of the Russian space agency.
Psychologists said long confinement would put the team members under stress as they grow increasingly tired of each other's company.
Psychological conditions can even be more challenging on a mock mission than a real flight because the crew don't experience any of the euphoria or dangers of real space travel.
Davydov described the experiment as an important part of preparation for an actual flight to Mars and predicted that the real mission could take place in about 20 years, but only with international cooperation.
Martin Zell, a European Space Agency official overseeing the experiment, called the mission a "really strong asset for future undertakings of mankind in space, for its ambition to fly finally to the Red Planet."
The facility for the experiment is in western Moscow and includes living compartments the size of a bus connected with several other modules for experiments and exercise. The video footage of the landing was shown on a big screen at Russia's Mission Control Center in Korolyov outside Moscow, which is used to handle manned missions to the -international space stations.
The mission director has said the experiment could be disrupted for medical or technical reasons, or if some of the participants demand it be stopped.
So far the crew has been doing just fine. "After a couple of weeks they were really a team, certainly with some temporary ups and downs of individual crewmembers," Zell said.
"A big challenge is missing daylight, missing visual perceptions," he said. "They also have to live with the food which they have on board and with the air which they have on board."
A real mission to Mars is decades away because of huge costs and technological challenges, particularly the task of creating a compact shield that will protect the crew from deadly space radiation.
The crew of a Chinese, three Russians, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian entered a network of modules at a Moscow research center last June to imitate the 520-day flight and see how they cope with the constricted, isolating conditions of space travel - minus the weightlessness.
Several participants donned 30-kilogram suits to perform yesterday's mock landing in an adjacent capsule. The crew planted the flags of China, Russia and the European Space Agency, took "samples" from the ground and conducted faux scientific experiments.
"All systems have been working normally. The crew are feeling fine," said Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of the Russian space agency.
Psychologists said long confinement would put the team members under stress as they grow increasingly tired of each other's company.
Psychological conditions can even be more challenging on a mock mission than a real flight because the crew don't experience any of the euphoria or dangers of real space travel.
Davydov described the experiment as an important part of preparation for an actual flight to Mars and predicted that the real mission could take place in about 20 years, but only with international cooperation.
Martin Zell, a European Space Agency official overseeing the experiment, called the mission a "really strong asset for future undertakings of mankind in space, for its ambition to fly finally to the Red Planet."
The facility for the experiment is in western Moscow and includes living compartments the size of a bus connected with several other modules for experiments and exercise. The video footage of the landing was shown on a big screen at Russia's Mission Control Center in Korolyov outside Moscow, which is used to handle manned missions to the -international space stations.
The mission director has said the experiment could be disrupted for medical or technical reasons, or if some of the participants demand it be stopped.
So far the crew has been doing just fine. "After a couple of weeks they were really a team, certainly with some temporary ups and downs of individual crewmembers," Zell said.
"A big challenge is missing daylight, missing visual perceptions," he said. "They also have to live with the food which they have on board and with the air which they have on board."
A real mission to Mars is decades away because of huge costs and technological challenges, particularly the task of creating a compact shield that will protect the crew from deadly space radiation.
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