MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. The SIRIUS isolation experiment, which is to begin in March 2019 in Russia, will serve as an example for Russian-US cooperation in other domains, US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has said.
In a Russian-language Twitter message, the US embassy quoted Huntsman as saying that the joint mission would serve as an important example for cooperation in other areas, where people of Russia and the United States can work jointly in order to achieve a common goal.
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 four 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.
Currently, a series of experiments called SIRIUS is being implemented on Earth to prepare for deep space flights, in the first place, to the Deep Space Gateway.
The participants in the research will spend in isolation from 17 days to a year in the ground-based compound of Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems.
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 is due to take place to be followed by an eight-month experiment that will give way to a twelve-month research.