MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. The Institute for Bio-Medical Problems under the Russian Academy of Sciences in early February will officially announce selection for its year-long isolation experiment, SIRIUS-23, the institute’s press service told the media on Monday.

"Officially, the recruitment of a crew for the SIRIUS project will be announced by the IBMP of the Russian Academy of Sciences in early February. Currently, work is underway to compile the research and operational and technical programs of the experiment, based on the results of the previous stages of the SIRIUS project (which lasted 17, 120 and 240 days)," the IBMP said.

The institute invites Russian organizations and interested international partners to pool research and technological capabilities for conducting joint research into preparations for further crewed space exploration missions.

The SIRIUS-2023 experiment is slated to commence in mid-November of this year at the IBMP’s ground-based experimental complex of hermetic chambers with controlled environments. This one-of-a-kind facility allows for conducting research in conditions approximating those of a prolonged crewed expedition.

About the experiment

The SIRIUS experiment (Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station) is an international project, organized by the IBMP of the Russian Academy of Sciences and NASA HRP (Human Research Program). The experiment was conceived as a simulation of a crewed flight into deep space.

The goal of isolation studies is to model significant events that may occur during the space crew’s long stay on the space station and when landing on a different planet. With the help of a series of experiments, scientists plan to solve the problems of medical and biological support for flights to the Moon and the crew’s stay on the Moon’s orbiter, as well as to try to minimize the risks of human error during long interplanetary flights (including those to Mars).

The SIRIUS project envisages a whole series of isolation experiments. The first one took place in November 2017, when a test crew spent 17 days in isolation. In 2018-2019 the isolation experiment lasted four months. In July 2022, an eight-month long SIRIUS-2021 experiment ended in Moscow. By 2028, three 12-month-long experiments are to be staged to simulate flights into deep space.