A year in a confined space: an experiment to simulate interplanetary flight has started

A crew of six volunteers launched “to the Moon” from Moscow.

Five Russians and one representative from Belarus went on a year-long expedition under the long-term isolation program SIRIUS-2023, equivalent to a flight to the earth’s satellite or Mars. The flight, however, will take place at the ground-based experimental complex (GEC) of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Khoroshevskoye Highway. The MK correspondent saw off the crew.

For 365 days they will not be able to hug their loved ones, enjoy the Sun, or listen to the rustle of leaves. Only the living cabins of the “spaceship” and the cold “space” outside.

Spatial and social isolation lasting 365 days is what IBMP scientists have been striving for since 2017, the year the multi-phase SIRIUS project was launched.

Then, six years ago there was a trial 17-day flight, then in 2019 – a 4-month flight, in 2021 – an 8-month flight and now, finally, an annual one.

The goal, as in all previous ones, is to test volunteers, two absolutely healthy guys and four girls, in an environment with constant, ideal temperature, humidity, light, and in constant company. That is, in an atmosphere very reminiscent of life on a space station. Of course, there will be no overloads during “takeoff” and “landing”, there will be no weightlessness, but rest assured, the organizers will provide everything else, including emergencies on board. After all, the main goal of the “interplanetary expedition” is to study the mechanisms of adaptation of the human body to the conditions of year-long isolation in a hermetic facility with an artificial habitat that simulates a manned space flight.

The team that went through a special selection system included: a production automation specialist, an employee of the Cosmonaut Training Center named after. Yu A. Gagarin Yuri Chebotarev (crew commander), Khabarovsk Airlines pilot Anzhelika Parfenova, allergist Ksenia Orlova (she is also a representative of the “space” state of Asgardia), junior researcher at the Institute of Physical-Organic Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Olga Mastitskaya (she became the first representative of Belarus in such experiments), junior researcher at IBMP Ksenia Shishenina and doctor from IBMP Rustam Zaripov.

How did it happen that there were more representatives of the fair sex in the crew? “Not on purpose,” the testers shared with us, “these are just the results of the selection.” The girls promised not to be “pressured” by the majority of men and to cope with all the tasks assigned to them.

According to the scenario, the crew will have to fly to the Moon, dock with the lunar orbital station, work in lunar orbit, five landings of crew members to carry out operations on the surface of the satellite and return to Earth.

But in between active actions, the “earthlings” will face long monotonous months of staying in a closed hermetic volume, far from their relatives. Add to this also limited resources: food, water, clothing, technical consumables, designed strictly for 365 days. That is, sitting in front of the refrigerator at night and feeling homesick will not work… In addition, for the first time, everyone will be “watched” day and night by the eye of “Big Brother,” that is, by the psychologists of the experiment. No, personal cabins and a sanitary block are free from surveillance, but in all other places video cameras will vigilantly peer into the faces of the experiment participants.

“We have observed the emotions of the testers before,” one of the leaders of the experiment, a specialist in the field of extreme physiology and space medicine, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Baranov, tells MK. – But these were separate sessions. Now we will film the guys constantly, and the data from modern cameras will go to the computer and be processed using a neural network. A slightly frowning eyebrow or a facial wrinkle around the mouth caused by a barely noticeable smile will no longer be hidden from artificial intelligence.

In general, among the 52 experiments of the year-long expedition, psychological ones occupy the largest part – there are 18 of them. In addition to personal and intergroup relationships, psychological stability when performing important types of work, IBMP specialists for the first time introduced an experiment called “Cosmonaut Interview”.

According to Academician Baranov, in the future it is planned to be carried out with the help of artificial intelligence – during a long flight he will always be ready to have a heart-to-heart chat with a crew member and select music to suit his mood. Now, during the flight “to the Moon,” there will be a special program to interview crew members individually, which will include questions in advance.

“For the first time in the experiment, a robotic manipulator will appear to work on the surface of the Moon,” Sergei Ponomarev, executive director and chairman of the experiment’s organizing committee, told me. “What is important to us is how isolation affects the camera abilities of people in orbit and on the surface of the Moon.

Before the team members crossed the containment hatch, the Belarusian participant received a souvenir – one of the journalists, apparently one of her compatriots, gave her a talisman – a small doll in a national costume. Let’s hope that it will bring good luck to the whole team.