« The price is wrong, bitch | Main | Not a good way to go »
June 20, 2007
Sign me up
You know, I always wanted to be an astronaut. Experience outer space would be an amazing thrill. Alas, I have no real astronaut credentials. However, maybe I can get my astronaut jollies by signing up for this:
The European Space Agency (ESA) on Tuesday called for applications for one of the most demanding human experiments in space history: a simulated trip to Mars in which six "astronauts" will spend 17 months in an isolation tank on Earth.
Their spaceship will comprise a series of interlocked modules in an research institute in Moscow, and once the doors are closed tight, the volunteers will be cut off from all contact with the outside world except by a delayed radio link.
They will face simulated emergencies, daily work routines and experiments, as well as boredom and, no doubt, personal friction from confinement in just 550 cubic metres (19,250 cubic feet), the equivalent of nine truck containers.
Communications with the simulated mission control and loved-ones will take up to 40 minutes, the time that a radio signal takes to cross the void between Earth and a spaceship on Mars. Food will comprise mainly the packaged stuff of the kind eaten aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
The goal is to gain experience about the psychological challenges that a crew will face on a trip to Mars.
Okay, maybe not...
entry no. 885
Posted by oz115 at June 20, 2007 02:53 PM