Guinea pigs needed for 500 weightless days

By Helen Womack

November 17, 2004
Volunteers take part in earlier experiments simulating space travel.

Volunteers take part in earlier experiments simulating space travel.
Photo: Supplied

Russian scientists are searching for six male volunteers of different nationalities, ready to cut themselves off from the diversions of the world and live in a capsule for 500 days to simulate a manned flight to Mars.

Anatoly Grigoriev, scientific adviser to President Vladimir Putin and director of the Institute for Biomedical Problems, said the volunteers would be rewarded for their pioneering self-sacrifice with a decent amount of money, perhaps enough to buy an apartment in Moscow. Volunteers from other countries would be paid by their own space agencies at the going overseas rates.

A scientific, medical or engineering background was probably a plus but the most important thing was that the volunteers should be dedicated to discovery.

A manned flight to Mars would probably be realistic within 20 to 25 years, Professor Grigoriev said.

Moscow's Institute for Biomedical Problems recently celebrated its 41st anniversary. Since shortly after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in 1961, its scientists have been studying the effects of the space environment, particularly the condition of weightlessness, on the human body.

Volunteers have put themselves in centrifuges or floated in swimming pools or lain for months in bed, their heads tilted six degrees down from the horizontal, to come as close as it is possible on this Earth to the experience of zero gravity.

The cosmonauts who fly to Mars will face four particular problems to which the scientists are starting to seek answers in their experimental capsule.

The first problem is that because of the distance, cargo rockets will not be able to supply the crew, so if any of their equipment breaks down en route, they must be able to fix it themselves.

The second problem is that if any crew member becomes ill during the flight, he will not be able to return to Earth, so his teammates must be able to give him medical treatment.

The third task is to create life support systems, such as water recycling plants and mini-gardens, so that the crew can live healthily, while at the same time cutting down on the weight of supplies carried.

The fourth matter is the whole gamut of psychological issues, from possible competitiveness and incompatibility among the crew to the mental pressure of knowing that deadly radiation lies just beyond the thin wall of the spacecraft. A bad mood atmosphere could become as dangerous as bad atmosphere.

"Imagine them all flying off to Mars together," said Professor Grigoriev. "At first they are friends, concentrating on the mission. But then one lands on Mars while the others wait. The one who landed becomes a hero while those who waited feel like mere taxi drivers. Jealousy and conflicts flare up on the way home. This situation has already arisen once, when the Americans went to the moon."

Foreigners are invited to apply, but scientists are looking for an all-male group, saying it is too early for the half of the human race that comes from Venus to aspire to Mars travel.