MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. The participants in the SIRIUS experiment simulating a flight to the Moon will tell about their life in isolation in video-blogs. Their video materials will be available on the Facebook and YouTube pages of the Institute of Biomedical Problems, the Institute’s press office told TASS on Monday.
The international crew of six persons entered the SIRIUS ground-based experimental compound on March 19 to spend the next 120 days in a simulated flight to the Moon and prepare for future deep space missions.
"Each crew member will record a personal video blog. They will be posted on the Facebook page of the Institute of Biomedical Problems, on the Institute’s channel in the YouTube and on the official website of the SIRIUS project," the Institute’s press office said.
The participants in the experiment have been requested to share their emotions, interesting events and how they spend their day, the press office said.
"It is of interest for us to see their vivid perceptions of their life and work rather than their statistical reports. They will be telling about what happens over a day," the Institute’s press office said.
The crew members have already started to transmit the first video files of their blogs to the ground-based control center. These vlogs are due to be published already in early April, the press office said.
Pursuant to the commission’s decision, the crew comprises four representatives of Russia and two representatives of the United States. The commission has approved cosmonaut Yevgeny Tarelkin as the crew commander and Daria Zhidova (Russia) as the flight engineer, Stefania Fedyai (Russia) as the crew doctor, Reinhold Povilaitis (USA), Anastasia Stepanova (Russia) and Allen Mirkadyrov (USA) as test researchers.
Over the four months of the experiment to simulate a flight to the Moon, the crew will fly to the Earth’s natural satellite, choose a place for a future lunar base and reach the Moon’s surface. The experiment’s scenario will reproduce the basic characteristics of a space flight to the Moon. Besides, the crew will be performing the programs of researches into physiology and psychology and in other areas. Overall, 81 experiments are planned.
The SIRIUS (Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station) experiment will simulate a flight to the Moon: the travel to the Earth’s natural satellite and a flight around it to search for a landing place, the landing of crewmembers for operations on the surface, the stay in the Moon’s orbit and the remote control of a lunar rover to prepare a base and return to Earth.
The experiment is being held by the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences jointly with NASA and in cooperation with partners from Germany, France, Italy and other countries. It envisages a series of experiments to prepare for deep space flights.
The first of the series of joint Russian-US SIRIUS experiments was held in November 2017 and lasted 17 days. The crew was tasked to conduct over 60 various experiments, ‘capture’ satellites by a manipulator arm and control a rover on the Moon’s surface. Now a four-month isolation experiment has begun and it will be followed by an eight-month experiment that will give way to a twelve-month research.