Slashdot Mirror
Russian Scientists Plan Simulated Mission to Mars
EzRag writes "According to this article in New Scientist, Russian scientists are preparing for a simulated mission to Mars, with six cosmonauts crammed into approx. 400 sq. meters for the length of the (simulated) journey. They'll bring with them all the food they'd need, and will recycle air and water. They will not, however, be exposed to simulated solar radition."
to delay the communications by the amount of time that the distance between the ship and earth would be simulated to be.
I know it would be frustrating as hell to the people on the outside to do that (when they know they don't have to.) But it could have significant effects psychologically to have the astronauts able to communicate with earth, but only incredibly slowly. If they had a mechanical problem that they needed to msg home for help on how to fix for example, they'd have to wait many minutes before they got the info.
As well, learning more about how to handle the delay will lead to more efficient, better written requests and reports since the "astronauts" wouldn't be able to chat in realtime with earth. It would be almost like a return to the days of communicating with the pony express.
~ kjrose
It's neat to see any country doing the research that has little practical appliation and doesn't get them any "Firstness! (or on the moon, or in orbit) notoriety." It leaves me with hope that the days when the space program was a thinly veiled military weapons development program (in many countries), are behind us, and that the research that continues, is work toward the more noble goal of exploring a little more of the universe than an 8000 mile across ball of mud has to offer.