NASA invites people to spend eight months in isolation for an experiment for its Artemis mission

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is looking for people who are willing to spend eight months in a Russian lab. Those who want to apply must speak both Russian and English proficiently and have an MS, PhD, MD or military officer training. Selected candidates will be compensated, they have said.

The mission facility in Moscow, Russia Image Credits: NASA and the Institute for Biomedical Problems[/caption]During the experiment, a crew will live in isolation in a closed facility at Russia's Institute for Biomedical Problems. The facility was used for a series of Russian mock Mars missions in 2011. Two separate crews spent 520 and 105 days inside it respectively.

This time, the facility will have environmental aspects similar to what astronauts could encounter on future missions to Mars.

Those who get selected would have to spend these eight months in isolation, working on scientific research. They will also conduct experiments that future astronauts might have to perform during the mission.

More from Science

NASA, basically, wants to understand the psychological and physiological effects of isolation by putting the crew in this Mars base-like environment.

The space agency recently announced that it would purchase one additional Soyuz seat from Russian space agency for a launch this fall. It will pay more than $90 million to Roscosmos.

The move was taken “to ensure the agency (NASA) keeps its commitment for safe operations via a continuous US presence aboard the International Space Station until commercial crew capabilities are routinely available.”