International Experiment SIRIUS-21 to Simulate Flight to Moon Started in Moscow

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - International isolation experiment SIRIUS-21 to simulate the flight and landing on the moon started on Thursday in Moscow, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Six people went on a conditional trip to the moon: Oleg Blinov, an instructor of the Cosmonaut Training Center; Viktoria Kirichenko, a surgeon at the IBMP; Ekaterina Kariakina, ex-flight attendant of the Nordwind airline, and now a junior researcher at the Institute of International Biological Problems; William Brown, a US bachelor of Russian Language and Literature; Ashley Kowalski, a representative of the command US space systems; and UAE test astronaut Saleh Omar Al Ameri.

They will have to live together for 240 days in a simulator of a spacecraft — a ground-based test complex in Moscow. The task of the "crew" is to simulate the flight, landing on the Moon and work on its surface.

A crew of six starts today a simulated interplanetary mission in #isolation... for 240 days! Four @esa experiments are part of the #SIRIUS21 study to better understand human behaviour, health and performance🧐
🔴 Watch the hatch closure via @roscosmos: https://t.co/NvvqUhIPUI pic.twitter.com/629l7sqLkc

— Human Spaceflight (@esaspaceflight) November 4, 2021

The SIRIUS project (Scientific International Research In Unique Terrestrial Station) is carried out jointly by IBMP and NASA in cooperation with space agencies of Russia, ESA, Germany, France, the United Arab Emirates, space industry enterprises with the participation of experts from Russia, the US, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Canada and other countries.

SIRIUS includes a series of isolation experiments. Experiments have already been carried out with a duration of 17 days in November 2017 and four months in 2018-2019. Until 2028, it is planned to conduct three year-long experiments. The first of them will take place in 2022-2023.

Flight 'Moscow-Moon'

According to data from the project's website, on the first day of the experiment, the "spacecraft" is launched into low-earth orbit. From the second to the fourth day, "docking" with the interplanetary complex is carried out, and the systems are being tested. On the fifth day, an imitation of a flight to the Moon will begin.

On the eighth day, the "spacecraft" will enter a circumlunar orbit, after which, until the 60th day, the crew prepares for a "landing" on the lunar surface, and also controls the lunar rovers from a circumlunar orbit.

The first UAE Analog Mission has started in Russia today. The 240-day mission is part of the Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station (SIRIUS-21). We are confident that analog astronauts Saleh AlAmeri and Abdalla AlHammadi will succeed in their mission! pic.twitter.com/0dAxkKuJuv

— Sultan AlNeyadi (@Astro_Alneyadi) November 4, 2021

During the experiment, three "landings" on the Moon are planned by crews of four. Each stay on the "lunar surface" lasts four days. During the "spacewalks," it is supposed to move along the simulator of the lunar surface in a spacesuit using virtual reality technology. During the "expedition," the researchers will perform soil sampling operations and control the lunar rover model.

From the 237th to the 240th day, the crew "returns to Earth" and lands on the last day of the experiment.