MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. Russia will send a domestically made exercise machine for cosmonauts together with a research and energy module to the International Space Station (ISS), Head of the Laboratory for the Prevention of Hypo-Gravitational Disturbances at the Institute of Biomedical Problems within the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences Yelena Fomina told TASS on Thursday.
The exact timeframe for the delivery of the exercise machine to the orbital outpost is not yet known as it depends on the date of delivering a new Russian NEM research and energy module into orbit, she said.
"It [the simulator] is planned to be installed in the research and energy module," she said.
Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos earlier said that the delivery of the NEM module to the space station was preliminarily scheduled for 2022.
The simulator’s first mockup was tested during the Mars-5000 ground experiment. This was a Russian-Austrian exercise machine and cosmonauts had some critical remarks about its operation, the researcher said.
"These remarks were taken into account and now our Russian engineers are developing an exercise machine for the ISS," she said.
The cosmonauts will be able to perform about eight sets of physical exercises on the new simulator, first of all, to train the muscles that experience impacts in zero gravity, she said.
The possible options of the simulator’s physical exercises include flexing, weight lifting and rowing.