Researchers to study space radiation impact on human organism

Researchers will use monkeys to study the impact of space radiation on human organism during interplanetary missions in parallel to the Mars-500 project, Deputy Director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems Boris Morukov said on Wednesday.

The study of the impact of space radiation on human organism is one part of the Mars-500 programme, which will last several decades. “But we will use monkeys because we cannot experiment with people,” Morukov said.

He said the first session of the experiment took place in the spring of last year.

In his view, “It is a very challenging technical task to simulate the factor of space radiation on earth”. This is why several sessions will be held, short-term at first, and then long-terms ones.

During the short-term sessions, lasting 14-30 days, researchers will “select the adequate doze of radiation” and then study changes in the animals’ organisms.

“It may take some time for these changes to manifest themselves, maybe even in the next generation, and the experiment will continue for several decades,” the official said.

According to specialists, radiation risks are the biggest risks to be dealt with during the future flight to Mars. There are three aspects to these risks: physiological, ergonometric, and technical.

A research programme for the Russian-European project Mars-500 that should imitate a manned mission to Mars will be put together during a “dress rehearsal” – a preliminary 105-day experiment, the director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, Academician Anatoly Grigoryev said.

He presented the project at the MAKS-2007 aerospace show in Zhukovsky, Moscow region.

Prior to the imitated manned flight to Mars scheduled for the end of 2008, the institute will carry out two more preliminary experiments, one will last 14 days and the other one 105 days.

“We will be checking technical equipment for 14 days, and then, in the course of the 105-day experiment, we will select Russian and foreign research proposals for further implementation during the Mar-500 project,” Grigoryev said.

In his words, an international crew for the 105-day experiment will be formed before the end of this year. The experiment will begin in early 2008.

Meanwhile, work is underway to select the main crew for the “Martian mission”. It will consist of two Russians and two Europeans. The main requirements the candidat6es have to meet is the knowledge of Russian and English, excellent physical condition, and professional skills, preferably in several fields.

In addition, each candidate has to be of 25 to 50 years of age and have higher education.

Preference will be given to doctors, engineers, biologists, and computing experts. It would be desirable for candidates to combine several specialties.

Candidates will also have to provide documents proving they have no serious illnesses, harmful habits or problems with law.

The candidates who have already undergone outpatient examination include women. However the gender composition of the crew will be known not earlier than the end of 2008 when organisers will announce the list of those will spend 520 days aboard a “Martian” spaceship, isolated from the rest of the world.

The head of the European Space Agency’s ISS Utilisation and Microgravity Division, Marc Heppener, said that the agency had already received over 5,000 applications from prospective candidates, of whom only 12 will have to be selected.

The requirements are the same as at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, which has received only 200 applications, but two full crews have to be selected for a 105-day and for a 520-day experiments, plus backup crews.

The Mars-500 project is financed out of the Russian federal budget and the ESA contribution. But Grigoryev says “there are also private companies that have decided to take part in the project not just as sponsors but as participants with their own research programmes”.

Morukov, a cosmonaut in the past, said, “The Mars-500 experiment has two important features.” First, the ESA not simply provides participants and prepares some of the onboard studies, but it controls the flight and conducts research together with the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems.

Second, further experiments under the Mars-500 programme may be taken to the International Space Station (ISS) when its construction is completed and becomes a base for research for future interplanetary flights.

A contract will be signed with each member of the crew. It will describe in detail the terms of participation in the project, including financial ones, he said.

The Mars-500 experiment, which is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2007, will last at least 520 days, during which time six volunteers will live in an autonomous mode in a replica of a “Martian ship”, provided with a close-cycle life-support system. Water, oxygen and some of the food will be produced aboard. Medics and scientists will watch the physical and psychological condition of the volunteers.

“The crew’s work and leisure in the early stages of the experiment will vary depending on the stage of the flight and situation,” a spokesman for the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, Mark Belakovsky said earlier.

Mars-500 is divided into three main stages: a flight from Earth to Mars, a 30-day stay on Mar of a crew of three, and a flight from Mars to Earth.

Itar-Tass, August 22, 2007
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