Experiment to simulate flight to moon to start in Moscow on March 19
MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax-AVN) - A mixed crew will begin a four-month simulated expedition to the moon as part of the Sirius project on March 19, Mark Belakovsky, deputy director of the project, said.
"The project is scheduled to begin on March 19," Belakovsky told Interfax on Wednesday.
The experiment will be conducted at the Ground Experimental Complex of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
The Institute of Biomedical Problems is preparing for the SIRIUS-19 simulation isolation experiment with HRP NASA.
"This four-month experiment simulates the flight of a crew of six to the moon with subsequent circumnavigation and search for a place to land, landing by four crewmembers to conduct operations on the surface, a period in lunar orbit to receive supply spacecraft and remote operation of the lunar rover to prepare the base, and subsequent return to Earth," Belakovsky said.
The main and double crews, composed of cosmonaut Yevgeny Tarelkin, Polina Kuznetsova, Anastasia Stepanova, Darya Zhidova, Artyom Knyazev, Dmitry Glukhikh, Stefania Fedyay (all Russians), Daniil Dubar (Belarus), Reinhold Povilaitis (U.S.), have begun baseline studies and training. Another crewmember, Allen Mirkadyrov (U.S.), is expected to arrive in the next few days.
Specialists from Roscosmos, RKK Energia, the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, KBRwyle (U.S.), Airbus DS (Germany), and other aerospace industry enterprises from more than ten countries are involved in the experiment.