MOSCOW, March 3 Participants of the Russian isolation experiment SIRIUS-23 will simulate the search for the best place for a space station on the Moon, Sergei Ponomarev, responsible for the SIRIUS project, said in an interview.
«The day of the tester in the experiment is scheduled by the hour, and sometimes by the minute. We call such a schedule a cyclogram. The cyclogram consists of scientific methods that we are now forming into the scientific program of the experiment. There are also trigger, important points, special events, for example, landing on the moon, searching for the optimal location for the future lunar station,» Ponomarev said.
According to him, during the experiment, the behavior and reactions of crew members during simulated emergency situations will be monitored.
The international project SIRIUS (Scientific International Research In Unique Terrestrial Station) is carried out on the basis of the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences and includes a series of isolation experiments to simulate space flights. Experiments have already been carried out for 17 days — in November 2017, four months — in 2018-2019, and eight months in 2021-2022.
It is also planned to conduct three annual experiments, the first of which will begin in November. Crew recruitment was announced in early February. During the experiment, the crew will perform tasks related to space flight operations and activities corresponding to the scenario of a long-term lunar mission.