Roscosmos begins 8-month-long international isolation experiment 'SIRIUS-21'

Gearing up for human expeditions to the Moon, the Russian space agency Roscosmos on Thursday, November 4, announced the launch of an international isolation experiment. Named Scientific International Research In Unique terrestrial Station or SIRIUS-21, the experiment will subject six astronauts to a simulated environment that they will face during the launch as well as when they land on the lunar surface. According to an official release, the isolation study will last 240 days and 70 experiments will be carried out related to preparation for further space exploration by humans, at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. 

Here's what awaits the astronauts selected for the study

The team of astronauts selected for the study includes three Russians- Oleg Blinov, Victoria Kirichenko, Ekaterina Karjakina, two Americans- William Brown and Ashley Kowalski and one from the UAE- Saleh Omar al Ameri. The space agency listed a number of challenges that the astronauts will face during the entire course of the study. 

As per the release, the crew members will have to endure sensory deprivation, monotony and limited social contacts all while remaining in a limited living space and controlled habitat. Communication delays of up to five minutes one way will also be common during the mission and the crew will have to conduct emergency operations in such conditions. During their isolation period, the team will be performing joint international experiments in close cooperation with developers and research directors, something which might turn out to be tough as the crew consists of astronauts from different nationalities. 

The agency says that this new study is a follow-up of the previous stages of SIRIUS-17 and SIRIUS-19, which were carried out in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Under SIRIUS-17, the scientists investigated the adaptation of the human body to the conditions of isolation in a pressurised object, during a simulated 17-day spaceflight. SIRIUS-19 experiment, on the other hand, lasted 120 days where six astronauts experienced the simulation of a real space flight to the Moon. 

Image: Twitter/@Roscosmos