Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: Institute of Biomedical Problems

Starting in March, Russia’s SIRIUS (Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station) experiment will simulate a flight to the Moon.

The SIRIUS-19 experiment makes use of a six person team and is being staged by the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP). The main objective of the mission: the choice of areas for the future construction of a lunar settlement/base.

Credit: Institute of Biomedical Problems

The four month isolation experiment simulates a flight to the Moon; finding a landing site; landing of four crew members for surface operations; a stay in the Moon’s orbit and remote control of a lunar rover to prepare a base; ending in a return to Earth.

General scenario

According to the Institute’s website, the general scenario of the SIRIUS-18/19 experiment includes several stages:

Credit: NASA

The crew starts to the Moon, reaches orbit and is joined to an orbital station.

For 2 months, the crew conducts observations of the lunar surface and makes a decision about the point of landing, during this period of time a series of dockings with transport ships are also performed.

Four crew members land on the moon, 2 or 3 crew members in lunar space suits perform several exits to the surface. The Moon circling spacecraft and the remaining two crew members continue to work in orbit and provide technical assistance and advice to their comrades on the surface.

Starting from the lunar surface and docking with the orbital ship.

Circling the Moon for several weeks, while the crew remotely controls lunar rovers (preparing for the construction of the lunar base), and also conducts a series of connections with transport ships.

Credit: Institute of Biomedical Problems

U.S. participation

The start of the SIRIUS-19 model insulation experiment is scheduled for March 19, 2019.

According to a TASS report, the final group of participants in the experiment will be determined on March 5; selection of eight persons is expected, six of them will make up the crew and two persons will be back-up crew members. Three women and three men are likely to make up the crew.

Two representatives of the United States and one representative of Belarus are also expected to take part in the isolation experiment.

The U.S. representatives, according to the Institute, Reinhold Povilaitis, an analyst of research and operations on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Allen Mirkadyrov in Telecommunication Networks and Technologies of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA and the State Research Center Institute for Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBMP) have a long and successful history of collaborating on joint research related to human health and well-being in space.

NASA’s HRP (Human Research Program), and IBMP are conducting research to identify preventive measures and technologies to protect the health of astronauts and astronauts during space flight.