Man has always wanted to land on Mars. At present, scientists predict that around 2020, humans will land on Mars by manned flight. To this end, scientists have carried out a series of experiments, one of which is the simulation experiment of Mars travel.
Because Mars is too far away from the earth, the nearest distance from the earth to Mars is about 55 million kilometers, and the farthest distance is over 400 million kilometers. Close contact between them occurs about once every 15 years. In 1988, the distance between Mars and the earth once reached about 58.8 million kilometers, but in 20 18, the distance between them reached 57.6 million kilometers.
Judging from the current time from the spacecraft to Mars, it will take about 6- 10 months. If manned, it may take 1 year. In the meantime, astronauts need to live in a spaceship. Being in a closed environment for such a long time will have many adverse effects on the physical and mental health of astronauts.
August 20 15, a team of six scientists will live in a closed dome in Hawaii for one year. This is the longest isolation experiment in the United States so far, aiming at preparing for NASA's trip to Mars. Prior to this, NASA had carried out the * * * sharing mission for four months and eight months respectively.
The experimental dome is located on the barren northern slope of Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, with a diameter of 36 feet (about 1 1 m) and a height of 20 feet (about 6 meters). Everyone has his own small room in the dome, which has a simple bed and a table. The living matter in the dome is very limited. Their daily diet is cheese powder and canned tuna. Food is supplied once every four months and water is supplied once every two months. The research team also conducted a series of possible emergency simulations, including power failure, tool damage and forced evacuation under strong radiation waves.
Players can leave the dome, but they must wear heavy spacesuits and can't surf the Internet. Contact with the outside world is limited to email, and there is a 20-minute artificial delay to simulate space communication.
There is little privacy here. Through cameras, human motion trackers and electronic questionnaires, researchers can understand the psychological changes and mental stress of participants in the long isolated life, and provide experience for the real Mars flight in the future.
The team members include 1 French astrobiologist, 1 German physicist, and the other four are Americans, namely astronauts, architects, doctors and journalists, and soil scientists.
This team, consisting of three men and three women, began to carry out the longest time-consuming Mars simulation mission in American history, preparing for human future space travel and life on Mars.
Astronauts are relatively helpless and have been in a closed environment for a long time, isolated from the world. Such a long process challenges human endurance. Physiologically, immunity may decline; Psychologically, with the progress of the task, volunteers may have anxiety and nervousness. These characteristics will cause heavy task load and form a strong stress state. The effects of isolation may even put astronauts in danger of death.
At the end of 20 16, six scientists? Out of the cabin, in? Welcome back to earth? Reunion with family in greeting. These scientists who participated in the experiment said: Feeling? Bored to death? And this feeling can make people extremely sensitive and emotional. I long for sunshine, air and delicious food. Want to jump into the sea and enjoy fresh food? .
In fact, this experiment of NASA is not a complete simulation of Mars travel, because it is impossible for human beings to replenish food while flying to Mars.
At present, human beings have conducted many experiments to simulate Mars travel, the longest of which belongs to Russia? Mars -500? In the project, six volunteers from Russia, China, Italy and France entered the cabin on June 3rd, 201/and landed on October 4th.
The experimental facility is located in the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of Russian Academy of Sciences. The experimental design is 520 days. Fly to Mars in the first 250 days, land on Mars in the middle 30 days, and return to Earth in the last 240 days. Volunteers simulated the whole process of flying to Mars, circling Mars, landing on Mars and returning to Earth.
The test module consists of medical module, living module, public activity module, Mars landing module simulator and light inflatable Mars surface simulation module. There are single bedrooms, kitchen and dining room, living room, bathroom, gym, bathroom and vegetable shed.
The life and work of all volunteer crew members are limited to the model spacecraft. You can't communicate directly with the outside world If you communicate through the internet, there will be a delay of 20 minutes. The experimenter can't get consumables from outside.
At present, all simulation experiments prove that human beings can endure loneliness for a long time, but solving their own problems does not mean solving other problems. Manned landing on Mars also faces other problems, such as environmental control and life support system, which is a very important and complicated system on the spacecraft, a system directly related to the health and life safety of astronauts, and an important system related to the successful completion of space missions.
Its main components are gas supply and pressure regulation subsystem, gas purification and pollution control subsystem, gas circulation and temperature and humidity control subsystem, water supply and management subsystem, food supply and management subsystem, waste collection and treatment subsystem and space suit subsystem.
At present, human beings can only achieve semi-regenerative system, which can also be called partial regenerative system or physical and chemical regenerative system. This environmental control life support system can completely or partially recover the carbon dioxide and waste water generated by the crew, generate oxygen and purified water, and provide them for the crew to recycle. On the ground, only food and part of oxygen and drinking water are needed, which is suitable for medium and long-term space flight (tens of days to a year or so). The system is currently being used in the space station.
It is impossible to replenish food on the ground when the spacecraft is in flight. Spacecraft must store enough food, oxygen and drinking water for round trip. A normal-sized crew needs to consume about 5 kilograms of oxygen, water and food every day to complete the work required for a standard space mission.
Think about how big the whole scale will be if an environmental control and life support system is to be established to maintain astronauts' survival for more than one year. Then you can imagine how big the whole ship will be.
Then you need a launch vehicle with a higher thrust than Saturn V to send the spacecraft into Mars orbit. But at present, the technology is not mature, and it will require more funds.
This is also the biggest problem facing manned landing on Mars at present. Finally, I would like to ask, if the manned trip to Mars can be realized, are you willing to endure a year of loneliness to go to Mars?