Before humans actually go to Mars, six people will
pretend to go first.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Institute
for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) recently announced the crew for the first phase
of their joint Mars500
mock mission.
Starting March 31, the selected adventurers will spend 105 days in isolation,
as if they were really journeying to the red planet. They will simulate abbreviated
periods of travel to and from Mars, as well as a stay on the
Martian surface. All the while, scientists from a mock control center will
watch what happens to the crewmembers' levels of stress, hormone regulation, immunity,
sleep quality, mood and diet.
"We want to learn about the effect of isolation on
performance, behavior, and interaction within the group," said ESA Mars500
program manager Jennifer Ngo-Anh. "Hopefully, we will test counter measures and
things like remote medical assistance, tele-medical equipment."
Out of 5,600 applicants, ESA chose two prime crewmembers,
and two backup. The prime team is Oliver Knickel, a mechanical engineer in the
German army, and French airline pilot Cyrille Fournier. Cedric Mabilotte and
Arc'hanmael Gaillard, both from France, will serve as backup crewmembers.
The European crew will join four Russian crewmates: cosmonauts
Oleg Artemyev and Sergei Ryazansky, medical doctor Alexei Baranov, and sports
physiologist Alexei Shpakov. "Right now the team is really motivated and
harmonious," Ngo-Anh told SPACE.com. "They're a really good team.
Ideally, there'll be no problems, but we'll see."
If problems do arise in the isolation facility, located
outside Moscow, the crew will try to handle it themselves, with help from the
mission controllers. Contact between the crew and the control center will have
a 20-minute delay, to simulate the communications lag a real mission would
experience. For the duration of the mission, the crew will only have
personal contact with each other, and voice contact with mission controllers, family
and friends.
While in isolation, the team will follow a similar
schedule to that of International Space Station (ISS) astronauts, with work,
rest and exercise. They will even eat the same food as the ISS astronauts. The Mars500
crewmembers will be paid 15,500 euros ($20,000) each for their participation.
The mock Mars expedition reportedly costs about $15 million.
Later in 2009, an extended 520-day mission will begin,
including the 250-day one-way trip to Mars, a 30-day stay on its surface, and
the 240-day return flight. The team for that longer experiment has not yet been
chosen.
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