On November 7, 2017, three men and three women were closed in the artificial spacecraft division in Moscow. This is a simulation of a 17-day flight to the moon, serving as a preparation for long-term missions.
The experiment is the first step in the SIRIUS program. The project is designed for 5 years, during which the length of stay in the evacuation will gradually increase to 365 days.
The Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems collaborates with NASA, creating conditions for a lunar flight, one turn around and return to Earth. Representatives say that by 2020s. will be ready for actual flight.
The goal of the experiment also includes an attempt to find out which gender ratio will be optimal for a long-term space mission. For Russia and the USSR, this is the first time that there is more than one woman in the crew. The team was placed in a module with a volume of 250 m 3. During the test, plan to study the effect of isolation on the physical and psychological state. In 1967, Russia conducted a similar experiment on land, where it also closed three people in a metal box with a volume of 24 m 3 for a year.
The latest long-term mission on land is an imitation of a Martian flight. It was conducted in 2011, when 6 people were isolated for 520 days.
