Russia will model a flight to Mars

According to an official statement, in 2005 an experiment on imitating the flight of a person to Mars will be started in Russia. Six participants of the experiment will spent 1.5 years in closed space.

Specialists of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems have already started preparations for the experiment, Interfax information agency reports.

Under the conditions of the experiment, six people will spend 500 days in the closed space of the ground-based space station module. This experiment imitates the number of conditions for a flight to Mars. “Astronauts” will take about 3 tons of water and 5 tons of food, and other water supply and some oxygen will be extracted from the products of their life activity. "The participants of the experiment will be trained for reacting to emergency situations which can happen during a long flight to Mars. A doctor will be a crew member to provide others with required medical treatment.”, said Marc Belakovsky, an official representative of the Institute.

In addition to Russians, foreign volunteers may also become the participants of the experiment. According to Marc Belanovsky,, a person can “withdraw from the game” only if he is unable to continue being in the experiment because of a serious illness or psychological stress.

Source: http://www.newsru.com/