MOSCOW, November 24During an experiment with a crew locked for a year to simulate the flight to the Moon SIRIUS-23, scientists will try to understand to what minimum value the immunity of a person isolated from the outside world can decrease, said Sergei, head of the laboratory of physiology of the immune system at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP) RAS Ponomarev.
“»We expect that with increasing duration of isolation there will be a decrease in indicators. But at the same time, most likely, the minimization of functions associated with being in a hermetic facility will reach some kind of plateau and will continue to remain there. But for now we are sure We can’t say, so we’re conducting an experiment,” Ponomarev said.
According to him, in previous experiments in the SIRIUS series, lasting four and eight months, it was found that isolation leads to a decrease in the functional activity of B cells that produce antibodies. The scientist clarified that in the end this could lead to the fact that upon leaving isolation a person could contract various diseases.
The decrease in immunity that the researchers observed during the four-month experiment was called “rudimentary” by Ponomarev, but after eight months of isolation the “full picture” became visible, he said.
The head of the laboratory emphasized that six people participate in each stage of the SIRIUS experiment, and this is very little to collect statistics sufficient for science. Therefore, some studies are repeated during each of them, so that the data obtained can then be compared. In particular, this applies to experiments in physiology and psychology.
The “flight” of the SIRIUS-23 crew began on November 14, 2023 at the IBMP experimental base. The crew included five Russians and a representative from Belarus. According to the experiment scenario, the crew will fly to a station in lunar orbit and spend almost a year there. In addition, five “landings” are planned on the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite.
Previously, within the framework of the SIRIUS program (Scientific International Research In Unique Terrestrial Station), similar experiments were carried out lasting 17 days (in November 2017), four months (in 2018-2019) and eight months (in 2021-2022 ). It was reported that there could be three experiments lasting one year.