Russia Plans 500-Day Mock Mars Mission

[meteo]

http://space.com/scienceastronomy/russia_500days_041011.html<br /><br />A great idea! Isolation and limited supplies-hopefully taken seriously. Knowing what to do on mars and how to do it time managment/logistics is very important to a futrue mission.<br /><br />The next step would be a complete mock mission. With simulated time on Mars and a return.

 

[aaron38]

I know this is going to provide a great amount of experimental data and everyone thinks we need to move cautiously and take baby steps...<br /><br />But I just can't help thinking that if all the exploration programs in human history had been done this way, nothing would have been accomplished.<br /><br />Should Columbus and his men just floated around the Mediteranean for 4 months, to see if anyone goes crazy?<br /><br />Should Louis and Clark have paddled around a pond for two years to make sure they were up for the journey?<br /><br /><br />I guess if there's nothing eles the Russian space agency can do right now, then fine, run simulations. But isn't the Mars Society already doing this? At least they're out testing space suits and such.<br /><br />But don't we already know everything we need to about isolation and rates of consumption from MIR and ISS?

 

[najab]

I could be wrong, but I don't think the Mars Society's Devon Island expeditions run the full 500-plus days of a Mars mission. Aren't they more like 90-100 days?<p>There's two reasons to do this kind of simulation: unlike all the historical exploration missions you mentioned, a Mars mission is going somewhere that it basically hostile to life. Columbus knew that once he found land, he would be able to survive - sure he might lose a few red-shirted crewmen in order to figure out what was poisonous - but he was still on the Earth with the same atmosphere and water. So it's <b>vitally important</b> that we know that we can design systems that can support life for 2-3 years without breakdown. Look at the current situation with the Elektron system on the ISS. If that was a Mars mission it wouldn't be a question of if to evacuate or not, it would be a matter of recovering bodies or not.<p>The other reason to do this kind of work is that nobody is funding a Mars landing mission at the moment. Doing this kind of study keeps the people who <b>will</b> design and execute the Mars mission busy. There is a real danger that they will have died off or disappeared into a thousand different jobs by the time we are ready for them.</p></p>

 

[meteo]

Mars Society runs apporx 2 week simulations. There is a lot to be gained with experiments like this 500 day simulation being conducted by Russia.<br /><br />I agree that a simulated 500 day to Mars experiment isn't particularly usefull, but it is a step in the right direction.<br /><br />However, In my opinion it would be more usefull to conduct a 500 days on the surface simulation. Testing would be done on space suit durability, tool durability, and logistics, logistics, logistics. MDRS and Flashline show that a manned mission to Mars would be extremely busy on the surface. Thouroughly exhausting for people and equipment. So managing time and doing what is most productive is a good thing to know. Esspecailly when a mission to Mars is so expensive and simulations can be done realtively cheaplly.

 

[thalion]

Here's something I posted on another forum about this experiment:<br /><br />This set-up wouldn't be a great facsimile of a Mars mission. As presently envisioned, the transit time to and from Mars (individually) would be considerably less than 500 days. Assuming a 500-day stay on the surface, Martian astronauts would still (presumably) have the option of taking walks outside, let alone being busy with all the work that scientists would want them to do during their time on the surface. So, I'm guessing this experiment will just be another attempt to drive volunteers insane to determine the limits of endurance. Still interesting, but I wouldn't be surprised if they end the experiment before 500 days are up.

 

[Leovinus]

I hope they simulate the varying time-lag in communications. Isolation becomes more real when you can't just have a real-time chat with your friends, family, and co-workers on Earth. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[aaron38]

But it's just 500 days in a tube! They're not doing anything. Fine, it's a life support test. But that should just be one part. And it's a psych experiment. But of course they're going to go crazy, there's nothing for them to do. I hope they're packing lots of vodka!<br /><br />If they're going to simulate, do it right. Give them an airlock into a Mars environment. Send them out to dig. Can you dig in a space suit? Do the tools break? When they break, try to repair them. Rip a space suit and see if an in situ repair will hold. Try out the airlock in a sandstorm. Do the seals foul up with dust? Will the lock still close on day 499? As an engineer, there's lots I'd like to see them do besides just sit in a tube, IMHO.

 

[summoner]

You'll have a tough time finding people to go on an 18 month trip without any companianship from the opposite sex. Married couples imo would be the best bet. There is the risk of problems that way, but if you have 3 men and 3 women on this journey and all the men are chasing 2 of the 3 women, or vice-versa there will be alot more trouble. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:271px;background-color:#FFF;border:1pxsolid#999"><tr><td colspan="2"><div style="height:35px"><img src="http://banners.wunderground.com/weathersticker/htmlSticker1/language/www/US/MT/Three_Forks.gif" alt="" height="35" width="271" style="border:0px" /></div>

 

[JonClarke]

Dr. Vadim Gushin of the IBMP spoke at length about this at the Australian Exploration Conference last year where he was keynote speaker. Several aspects of this experiment are noteworthy:<br /><br />1. It is the longest such experiment carried out to date. People asked about the Mars Society's work. The longest Mars Society crews to devon Ilsand or Utah have been 28 days.<br /><br />2. It will have a closed life support system with respect to oxygen and water. This is one of the longest such missions ever attempted (other than Biosphere 2)<br /><br />3. The mission will include a 30-60 day "landing" on Mars had way through the experiment. Some of the crew will move into a smaller chamber and carry out EVAs and experiments in a simulated Mars environment. This is the first time this aspect will have been simulated in a long duration enclosure (previous experiments have focused only on the journey there or on long duration earth orbit missions).<br /><br />4. IBMP are interested in collaboration not only with internationalvolunteers in the chambers but also in<br />mission support and research projects. Those who go will be carefully selected and carefully trained to ensure maximum capability and compatibility.<br /><br />5. I understanding that the time lag of the Mars mission will also be simulated. <br /><br />This is not a simple case of putting people in a tube and "seeing if they go crazy". The project has been in planning for at least two years and builds on at least 40 years of previous research at IBMP (the core of the simulator was built in the 60's to simulate Mars missions). There are many aspects of social pyschology that can be studied experimentally only in such situations - short of an actual mission.<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[spacester]

Thanks for the reality check, Jon, much appreciated. I hope it goes forward and is not completely ignored by American media.<br /><br />Any inside info on the CELSS?<br /><br />*<br />These prognostications on the difficulties strike me as very similar to certain sports commentators.<br /><br />Particularly golf; over and over again the guy in the booth will tell us what's going through the head of some PGA player. And over and over again he is proved wrong.<br /><br />The guy in the booth does not think like a champion thinks. If he did, he wouldn't be in the booth - he's got the skills but not the disposition. (I'm generalizing a lot here of course)<br /><br />Those who prognosticate on what future space explorers will be thinking - but who have no intention of going themselves - do not have the same disposition. What would be an insurmountable problem for these armchair astronauts would quite possibly be trivial to the actual people chosen.<br /><br />I have always found it ludicrous to hear that volunteers will be hard to find because of thus-and-so. When has a great adventure <i>not</i> attracted plenty of daring individuals? Why is it so hard to suppose that a compatable crew can be put together without great difficulty?<br /><br />Just because Kim Stanley Robinson or whoever needs interpersonal conflicts to tell a story does not mean that's the way it will actually happen. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>