The First Phase of the Simulation of a Voyage to Mars Is Coming to an End. Another Phase Is Just Being Arranged

Author: Pavel Toufar – participant in 3 isolation experiments
8 July 2009

The great space voyage is approaching its completion. However, in this case, no one actually travelled anywhere. The voyage was simulated and the destination was Mars.

In fact, it was a 105-day long final rehearsal of a virtual interplanetary voyage that is going to start, provided no trouble occurs, in the same experimental complex NEK at the close of this year and is going to take at least 520 days.

The Initial Phase of the Mars 500 Experiment Is reaching Its Peak

Let’s leaf through the journals of both representatives of the European Space Agency (ESA), military engineer Oliver Nickel and airbus pilot Cyrille Fournier. Everything started even before the given big day. All the six persons, namely four Russians and two representatives of the ESA, had experienced a trial stay in the experimental laboratory NEK. After two months of training in the astronaut training centre in the neighbourhood of the famous Star City and in the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems in Moscow, the group of six persons entered the experimental complex NEK on 26 March 2009 to stay there for four days only. Such a short amount of time was considered to be sufficient to allow them to get acquainted with its equipment and activities. On the day of the commencement of the 105-day stay there was no time left for getting acquainted with anything. An incessant cycle of precisely defined work, research, relaxation, and work again got started immediately.

Two of the four Russian members of the crew had a head start this time, since in 2007 they spent 14 days in two modules, namely in the habitable EU-150 and the medical EU-100. At that time, Sergej Rjazanskij, who had perfectly known NEK from the previous experiments, and Oleg Artemjev, along with the Institute technologists and researchers were adjusting the correct functioning of the experimental complex. By coincidence, both men are astronauts who have undergone basic training for flying in space ship Sojuz, and are thus expected to undertake a space voyage in the future. Besides Dmitrij Perfilov, Alexandr Kovalev and Anton Artamonov, there was only one woman in this experimental crew, who later successfully passed the selection procedure for the present programme Mars-500, namely the biologist and researcher Marina Tuguseva.

The remaining recruits, Cyrille Fournier and Oliver Knickel, but also Spakov and Baranov, had thus only four days to get acquainted with their future home. They were testing the equipment aimed for scientific research, organizing the supplies, put the mini glasshouse into operation and prepared the entire interior of the complex NEK for an adequately comfortable stay.

Oliver Knickel getting ready for the measurement of brain activity as well as heart activity and blood circulatory system with the help of Cyrille Fournier.

At that time Cyrille Fournier did not complain about a rather cramped space since he is not that tall, while Oliver Knickel would grumble about the necessity to put his long legs to the opened book cabinet since cabin bed of 185 x 40 cm was too short and stretch.

In 1988 when we were undergoing the experiment “Stola 88 k Marsu” we had only a couple of minutes to get acquainted with our future “residence”. The time was sufficient for us… The interior space was incomparably more confined and smaller than the space in the complex NEK. But it was equally important to get acquainted with it. The equipment enabling the crew to live in a closed space had been examined by engineers who had also installed appliances designed to fulfil the research part of the programme, however, I was sure at that time that as soon as the exterior armour-plated gate as well as the interior armour-plated sealing gate to the transition chamber close behind us, we will have no time to hesitate. One couple shall immediately start working with the research equipment, another couple should be sleeping according to the schedule, and the third couple shall be relaxing, so this couple would be the only one to have time for tidying and cleaning their personal things. That is why we had trained the “entry” and the “commencement”. And when we entered the subterranean laboratory and commenced the experiment, we did not have to think about who shall do what.

We had folding beds instead of beds in the bedroom and two interim folding beds were placed by the wall in the transit corridor between the minilab and the room. That was where I used to sleep most of the time. On the one hand, it was quite near my workplace – the minilab, and on the other hand, I did not irritate the crew members by my loud snoring. The disadvantage of this individual interim bedroom was the fact that two doors opened on to the toilet and on the opposite wall there was a washbasin with a water main. An accidental visitor would probably feel as if he was in a hospital laboratory at the department of urology, since there were plastic wide neck bottles under the basin, which were designed for urine. Each of us had some of our own bottles, so it was quite a huge storeroom, although we used to pass the filled bottles to the lab assistants through the transit chamber.

At the end of the 1980s we did not have any equipment for semi-automatic analysis of the samples that are available at the present time to the crew of Mars-500/105 in the complex NEK. That is why we used to send all the material, namely blood and urine samples and the results of the temperature and pressure measurements through the transit chamber. The only modern equipment we had at our disposal at that time was the digital thermometer; however, I used to measure my and my colleagues’ blood pressure in a classical manner, which was rather infuriating due to the occasional noisy air-conditioning. Well, it was difficult to get furious, since we were under constant psychologist camera surveillance… That’s why I would smile when taking the blood pressure.

I am quite not sure how Milos, who led another individual and separate group, managed to fit into the interim bed, since he is even ten centimetres taller than me, but I may ensure you that fatigue is the great leveller, so I mostly fell asleep as if unconscious, no matter whether on a short bed or an equally short but very uncomfortable interim folding bed. You get used to it in time, since discomfort soon becomes the life standard.

During the trial stay members of the Mars-500/105 crew experienced some problems they were to face later. I have already mentioned the short bed, but it was not just about accommodation conditions, but also the research experiments themselves – e.g. the Italian experiment based on the observation of brain activity during sleep. The apparatus includes a hat with 128 sensors and the necessary connecting cables, as well as ECG sensors and cables and a nasal probe measuring breathing activity.

Cyrille Fournier remembered, amused: “Me and Alexej Baranov tested it. Well, we were fast asleep because we were tired, but the night went for nothing. We woke up very often, not only because of the unusual sensor hat, but also due to the fact that we tossed and turned in the beds and thus entangled in the cables.”

Oliver Knickel going to sleep with brain activity sensor hat.

Time finally solved everything. After few days the premises of the complex NEK were made cosier by the typical human untidiness, papers placed on the desks, as well as notes posted on the equipment and the surrounding walls, also by photographs or posters. The interesting thing about it is that you could not find the typical posters usually seen on the metal lockers in male cloakrooms. Believe it or not, it is not usually the world’s beauties that you think about. Personal photos of the closest friends and family form part of the cabins, so in the communal spaces there are rather more formal photographs and posters, mostly with astronaut themes.

In less than a week the interior spaces of the habitable module and working module were not that impersonal and cold as at the time when the experiment commenced.

By the end of the second week we could sample the products grown in the mini glasshouse.

Strawberries cultivated in the mini glasshouse; green pepper and tomatoes in the background. Tomatoes ripen in the mini glasshouse.

Each member of the crew was given a slice of radish or onion, as well as a leaf of Chinese cabbage, but all were impatiently looking forward to trying the ripening strawberries, tomatoes, and peppers.

Oliver Knickel described in his journal also their infrequent leisure activities. They were allowed to bring a guitar to the complex NEX, they had various board games as well as card games at their disposal; they played poker for crisps, and Oliver was amazed by the ‘gambling’ achievements of his colleagues.

For example on 12 April, on the anniversary of Jurij Gagarin’s flight, they were allowed to read a number of greeting cards they had received from the outside, and could even talk to students from Moscow by phone. At another time they had a phone talk with Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, who paid a formal visit to the IMBP in the company of Prof. Woerner, chairman of the German Aerospace Centre, and former ESA astronaut -Thomas Reiter.

500 - Simonetta Di Pippo talking to the crew of the complex NEK.

Other greeting cards arrived at the complex NEK on the day Oliver Knickel celebrated his birthday – he was even allowed to talk to his girlfriend by phone. At another time French lyceum students from Moscow arrived in the control centre in order to have a talk with the crew. The social programme was thus very varied.

I can remember that when boys from my group in the experiment “Stola 88 k Marsu” produced home-made cards during the first days, we were immediately ordered to hand them over. Then we had to hand over simple chess set, also made of paper. Later, when we were out in the daylight again, someone told me that this was a result of a psychologist’s redundant activity or that she just did it out of spite. She was on duty in the control centre at that moment and probably did not exactly understand the purpose of the experiment. Nevertheless, her activity was undoubtedly suppressed by the directors of the experiment, since nobody ever after wanted us to “hand over” other games to the transit chamber. And we even made a paper puppet theatre. We were allowed to keep it. They did not insist that we hand it over. But we did not play much with it, since we spent our leisure time mostly in the social room chatting at the table because each of us had been doing something interesting in our daily life, therefore we had much to talk about.

We did not have a television, only a computer – from today’s perspective rather primitive, that was used for playing through a set of texts entitled Psycholab, and for registering the results of our Psycholab tests. The equipment with which all the three couples of our crew were working their regular turns was rather tediously dull.

The crew Mars-500/105 is better off compared with us. They have a large-area screen, so they can watch films; they have been allowed to bring a music recording, books, and even computer games.

We had to leave even our watch outside. And if we wanted to read anything, we had to write it ourselves first…

We had no voice contact – and by no means visual contact – with the control room, as the crew Mars-500/105 is having at the moment. In fact, I did have it, or better said, I was allowed to have it, since in case of urgency and emergency I was allowed to use the interphone which was installed in the social mini room. Since I did not intend to examine the border between normality and “the case of urgency or emergency”, I did not use the phone. And neither did the others.

Who can tell what impact would today’s time of mobile phones, Internet, Skype, ICQ, and last but not least, Facebook have on us?

I used the phone only in case of an accident, namely when the sewer collapsed, when the distribution switchboard caught fire, or when the French (supposedly undamageable) apparatus got damaged…

The visual contact was made available from the control room, which contained a large area with monitors showing the images of each camera. There were many cameras in our rather small place; they were missing only at the toilet and the shower. Nevertheless, the cameras pointed almost everywhere. The largest amount of these, if I remember it well - about four of them, were placed in the room we used as bedroom. I did not figure out why. The lights were constantly switched off.

In one of his journals Cyrille Fournier expatiated on the 24-hour cycle and its impact on our life, perception of day and night and about what happens when our internal biological clock gets considerably confused. He also wrote about the influence of colours on human mood. This was part of one of the scientific experiments prepared by scientists from Austria, The Netherlands, Switzerland and France.

The experiment "Stola 88 k Marsu" focused principally on the monotonous working activities and mutual relations between the members of both crews. At that time new methodology of investigating stress was very interesting. We used to complete various questionnaires for psychologists and sociologists. It was often like paperwork in an office – much of this and data acquisition is facilitated by computers today. Our biorhythms were intentionally “disturbed”, since mainly physiologists were interested in such things. Each couple thus observed the following cycle: 6 hours of work – 6 hours of relaxation - 6 hours of sleep, therefore our internal “stola” day did not have 24 hours, but only 18 hours.

The research into coloured light and its impact on the crew members’ mood during long-term isolation mentioned by Cyrille reminded me of the research carried out in the 1970s in which the persons undergoing the experiment were exposed also to “coloured music”, i.e. a combination of emotive calming (or arousing) music accompanied by bright-coloured optical displays.

Most of the time in complex NEK is devoted to scientific experiments, data measurement and collection and their handing over to the scientists for further analysis. Crew members shall undergo for example ultrasonographic examination of heart, kidneys and the main arteries.

We also used to undergo blood tests regularly, however, we would send the acquired samples out, we did not have any semi-automatic, or automatic analysis apparatus. Today’s ordinary investigation methods were still in its infancy at that time.

Today the researchers in the complex NEK must save water and electric energy in contrast to us. We did not have any such limitations, the shower worked well as long as the water-heater was heated up, the lights were on as long as we pleased.

However, the limitation within the experiment Mars-500/105 is rather severe. Cold water is intended for washing head and hands, while pre-moistened towels shall be used for the rest of the body, similarly as today on board the international space station ISS.

The unusual way of washing by means of pre-moistened towels made Fournier think about the ways we perceive personal hygiene and whether the chosen manner is sufficient to make one feel fresh and clean – the feeling we usually associate with flows of water in shower or with a bath full of pleasantly warm water. He came to the conclusion that it is rather about overcoming long-standing habits and accepting new approaches.

Mars 500 – the second half of the fictional voyage to Mars. From top left: Artemjev, Rjazanskij and Knickel; from bottom left: Baranov, Fournier and Spakov.

In one his journals Cyrille Fournier points out that according to some expert studies approximately 80% of our communication is nonverbal, we thus gain our understanding of, feeling and information about the other not from his/her words and sentences but rather from the tone of his/her voice, the expression of his/her face and eyes, hand gestures as well as body movement… In such a case cultural habits is what counts, therefore it is important mainly in the case of international crews to harmonize the interpretation and understanding of nonverbal communication. This must be explored in detail and taught to those who are going to spend long days, weeks and months in an international mini-community in an isolated and rather tight space of the interplanetary spaceship.

Cyrille Fournier has suggested that it does not depend on communication only, but also on mutual trust, to enable the isolated group members to spend their stay adequately comfortably, without any tension or even a crisis. I do agree with him in this matter since my memories of my third and so far my longest isolation experiment confirm his words… *

The time passed by and the long-term experiment involving rather monotonous activities, such as taking blood, saliva and urine samples, making analyses, completing psychological and sociological questionnaires, computer testing, as well as doing fitness exercises in the gym, was soon reaching its peak.

Alexej Spakov (left) and Oleg Artemjev undergoing testing in the gym.

But also various special experiments, among them the approach and attachment of the computer-imitated fictitious spacecraft Sojuz to the no less fictitious orbital station ISS, or a game including cooperation of three crew members by means of interconnected personal laptops, as well as other testing and examining to which it is necessary to add regular technical maintenance of the complex NEK and the control of internal ambience of the relevant modules to avoid the growth of mildew, fungi, or dangerous bacteria.

After completing our long-term experiment “Stola 88 k Marsu” the experts did not talk that much about the “critical third or fourth day of the stay” nor the “cabin fever”, earlier widely debated particularly by journalists. Nevertheless, I am not sure whether the powerful stimulus would be the presence of a woman in the crew, known to me since the mid 1990s, since in the experiment “Stola 88 k Marsu” the conditions under which the separated groups underwent the experiment were markedly different, and as Milos Cermak, leader of the second group, confirmed to me, his crew which was missing one member was actually completed by colleague Renata by coincidence and at the last minute.

When I was to say with the benefit of hindsight what was in my opinion the greatest enemy during the long-term isolation of a group, even if its members were sufficiently highly motivated, I declared boredom to be an extremely bothersome and even highly dangerous enemy. My answer was not rejected, on the contrary, boredom during long-term interplanetary voyages has become a frequently discussed topic among experts since that time. While we had to make various board games ourselves, they form part of the crew equipment today. I am convinced that our experiments have been of benefit to the comfort of long-term space expeditions in this way as well.

Even if the consequences of quarrelsome crew members becoming fed up with one another since they have no chance of escaping from the closed space are nowadays widely debated, I am convinced that the greatest enemy of each crew is the monotony of the everyday life in a small space of the interplanetary ship. The voyage from one planet to another will be accompanied mainly by inactivity, because attending to and controlling the system activity of the ship soon turns into a routine and boredom creeps in and can even cause irreparable harm. After taking part in three experiments aimed at long-term isolation of a group I may assure you from my own experience that the monotony is a much more malicious enemy than the dramatically described “fear of looking into the depths of outer space and the deep anxiety caused by the fact that the Earth is becoming more and more distant”.

Astronauts are trained to “look into the depths of outer space”, moreover, it is part of their work and life during the space voyage. Anyway, it is necessary to admit that “looking into the outer space” is undoubtedly impressive. But not in the negative, anxious or even dangerous sense. Many of those who returned from long-term stays at orbital stations or even from the Moon’s surface – except for apathetic persons – talked about how much their former viewpoint on usual and exaggerated problems has changed. We experienced something of this kind as well. I can clearly remember that during our experiment in a small study room and laboratory when the desk lamp was switched on and the surrounding quiet was interrupted only by the low whirr of the air conditioning I suddenly got the impression as if I had been separated from the Earth and found myself in an unidentified space. I can remember even with the benefit of hindsight that the feeling was not negative at all, on the contrary, it was reinforcing and even helped me overcome possible troubles.

We used to deal with the monotony of the stay by various types of entertainment – however, it was only three weeks. The voyages to the near planets will take long months, and even years. The greatest enemy of humans during the interplanetary expeditions will thus be monotony and the arising boredom. Although this might sound funny at first.

The question arises whether we are prepared to abandon the traditional way of selecting the crew members from experienced astronauts with good physical and mental health, capable of coping with extreme stress during the long space voyage. Some years ago I wrote a short novella entitled “Experiment” dealing with a small boy David who had been deprived of his boyish world and had to get ready for a voyage to the space. The story illustrates that even the most honest purposes of science may be abused. David managed it by himself. He prevented the rocket from taking off. It may actually be suitable to start selecting participants in interplanetary expeditions among young people, namely higher education students, who demonstrate not only sufficient motivation and commitment – which young person wouldn’t be eager to make an adventurous expedition?! – but also and above all adequate characteristics and skills that will predetermine them to become “spacemen”. They would have to undergo the long-term and demanding preparation process without being sure that they will actually go on the space voyage, which would examine their personality. Not only would they gain the necessary knowledge and form habits, but their organism would be more trained for extreme psychical effects of the interplanetary voyage. I am convinced that a person trained in the long term who can unite his/her identity with the space might be more apt to cope with all the problems. Therefore, I vote for timely selection, for “shaping of the spaceman”. However, this option has not been discussed yet, since all the discussions deal mainly with which technique to select, what ways of drive to choose, which voyage to Mars to choose… Nevertheless, I advocate not forgetting about the human within the flood of all these technical tasks – taking into consideration that we want to send him to Mars.

That is the main reason why experiments such as Mars 500, but also as our “Stola 88 k Marsu” are so important, though they may look like a cheerful boyish game.

The conclusion of the stay of the six “terrestrial astronauts”, which is an important prelude to the 520-day long simulation of the manned voyage to Mars, is satisfactory for the time being.