Russian scientists plot medical emergency for Mars astronauts
By ANISaturday, February 12, 2011
LONDON - Russian scientists are preparing for the medical emergency on simulated astronauts when they will land on Mars prepared in a Moscow laboratory.
The tragic accident, which could range from a broken leg to serious brain trauma, will test the volunteers of the Mars-500 project when they emerge onto a surface of Mars.
The diagnosis and treatment will be coordinated between a surgeon on the landing team, another on the mother ship, and a medical team on “Earth” - who will only be able to receive and send information with a significant time delay.
After eight months of “space flight” - incarceration in a 1,000 square ft capsule - three of the volunteer crew of three Russians, a Chinese man, an Italian and a Frenchman will climb into a separate “landing capsule” on Saturday.
On Monday they will emerge onto the “planet’s surface” - a giant sand pit in a sealed room where they will use virtual reality technology to simulate missions, drive rovers and take earth samples.
It will be the first-ever simulated landing on the planet’s surface, said Vadim Gushov, chief of the Psychological Laboratory at Moscow’s Institute of Biomedical Problems, reports the Telegraph.
“The landing will be the source of new hypotheses, new approaches, new ideas.”
After 200 days adapting themselves to an extremely monotonous lifestyle, the crew are about to be catapulted into a high stress, high responsibility period of taking what could be life and death decisions.
To simulate the debilitating effects of months in microgravity, the landing party have spent a week sleeping on inclined beds with their heads pointed downward, causing blood to rush to the head, putting stress on the heart and making it difficult to think.
They will only be able to communicate with their colleagues on the “mother ship” and “earth” during windows of a few hours per day when an imagined communications satellite is overhead.(ANI)
