SPACE WIRE
Russia to confine six cosmonauts for 17 months in Mars experiment
MOSCOW (AFP) Apr 08, 2003
Russia is to confine six cosmonauts in an imitation spacecraft for nearly a year and a half to prepare for a possible manned flight to Mars in 2018, and foreign cosmonauts could be invited to join in, a top medical official said Tuesday.

The experiment will be designed to simulate conditions that could be encountered during a return journey to the red planet that under preparation, Dmitry Malashenkov of the Institute of Biological and Medical Problems told

"The experiment to be carried out at the institute will involve six people spending 500 days in an enclosed space inside the ground module of a space station where certain conditions of a Mars flight will be simulated," he said.

The participants, who will be given three tonnes of water and five tonnes of food, "will undergo special training on how to act in hazardous situations," the official said.

Water and oxygen for the "flight" will be generated by means of the participants' own life processes.

"If a crewmember falls ill, the other members will have to provide aid on their own," Malashenkov said.

If the experiment has to be interrupted to evacuate a crewmember, perhaps because of serious illness or psychological stress, "it would be considered a defeat, as if that person had died," he said.

The six participants have not yet been chosen and the selection process will be rigorous, Malashenkov said, noting that the tough experiment meant an all-male crew was likely to be preferred.

Foreign cosmonauts could be considered for the experiment which is expected to be launched next year, he said.

The overall space in which the participants will live comprises some 400 square metres (4,500 square feet) formed from three modules linked by airlocks, but each crewmember will have a personal space of his own, he noted.

A return journey to Mars, whose distance from Earth varies considerably, would take more than a year.

Russian space authorities have pencilled in 2018 for a possible Mars launch as that year would see a combination of optimum conditions: the two planets would be relatively close, and the sun would be passing through a phase of low activity and radiation, Malashenkov noted.

"An initial project has already been defined, although the details are not ready," the official said.

In May 2001 the Russian Space Agency announced a tender for designs for a manned flight to Mars, with experts saying they expected the final plans to be announced in 2005.

Last year Russian space experts urged their US and European colleagues to join them in launching a manned flight to Mars by 2014.

Many experts believe January 2014 would be a more propitious date for a Mars exploration bid because an exceptional alignment of Earth, Mars and Venus that year would provide an escape route back to Earth in the event of a breakdown by means of a gravitational slingshot effect.

The US space agency NASA is currently engaged in small-scale studies on manned flight to Mars but has no plans for a mission.

Information obtained from unmanned flights to Mars has revealed that the planet has a very thin atmosphere and, although there is no liquid war, scientists believe it is possible the climate could sustain life in the form of micro-organisms.

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