MOSCOW. Jan 27 (Interfax) - Isolation experiment SIRIUS-21, which will simulate a flight to the Moon and last for eight months, will start in June 2021, the Roscosmos state corporation said.
"A crew of six people, three men and three women of different ethnic origins, will go into isolation in June 2021 to prepare for lunar expeditions. The volunteers will stay in a closed space for eight months," a report posted on the state corporation's Telegram channel said.
A real lunar expedition will be simulated for the crew using virtual reality, which will include a flight to the Moon, an orbital flight to look for a place to land, landing and going out onto the Moon's surface, and returning to Earth, the report said.
Mark Belakovsky, chief manager of the SIRIUS project, earlier said the experiment was part of a joint study conducted by the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences and NASA's Human Research Program in cooperation with organizing partners from different countries to conduct psychological studies and evaluate people's ability to work for the purpose of supporting lunar missions, and also to reduce risks during interplanetary flights.
The first experiment under the SIRIUS project, which lasted for 17 days, was conducted in November 2017, and a four-month study was carried out in March-July 2019. The purpose of the project is to ensure the possibility of space exploration outside the low near-Earth orbit, which will reduce the risks to people's health and ability to work thanks to a target program of fundamental, applied, and operational research. The experiment is being conducted in Moscow in the ground-based experimental complex of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Biomedical Problems.