Russian Volunteers Learn to Breathe "Martian Air"

Russian scientists are using human volunteers to test the ability of human beings to breathe argon-enriched air, as part of a research program designed to simulate a manned trip to Mars.

Locked inside a sealed capsule, the volunteers are spending ten days breathing a combination of argon, nitrogen, and oxygen, reports Russia Today. In the TV news segment at right, the reporter intones that in the West, researchers "still use mice" for such experiments. The lead Russian scientist defends using humans.

"Our experiments show that argon, combined with the right portion of oxygen, is quite safe for humans," says Aleksandr Dyachenko, a scientist at the Institute of Biomedical Problems at the Russian Academy of Science. "I tested it on myself and I'm OK. Our volunteers are also doing fine" .

Of course, the reason the volunteers are fine is that the air in their modified deep-sea diving chamber bears only a mild resemblance to the Martian atmosphere. Russian TV station, Akado, reports that the  chamber contained 60 percent argon, 15 percent oxygen, and 25 percent nitrogen. The real Martian atmosphere is 95 percent carbon dioxide, 2.7 percent nitrogen, 1.6 percent argon, and less than a percent of oxygen. Earth's atmosphere contains primarily nitrogen (78 percent) and oxygen (21 percent).

The purpose of the experiment appears to be to test if high levels of argon can protect against nerve damage from hypoxia, or oxygen starvation. Some studies have suggested that the noble gases, including argon, have that property.

The experiment is one of the first in a series of investigations that will culminate in the Mars 500 program in which six volunteers will be locked in a chamber designed to simulate a Martian-bound spacecraft. You can catch a glimpse of the compound in the video. It looks like large concrete bunkers bunkers. The virtual rocket will blast off next year.

Alexis Madrigal

Wired.com, 25.04.2008
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/russian-volunte.html