Wanted: volunteers willing to spend 520 days in a sex-free barrel. Applicants need to be fluent in English and Russian. No TV but books and films available.
It might sound like another dysfunctional reality-TV series but Russia's space agency is sifting through thousands of applications from would-be astronauts prepared to simulate an epic and far-distant manned mission to Mars. Instead of setting foot on the Red Planet, the astronauts will reside in a cramped barrel-shaped spacecraft in central Moscow. The tiny modules are designed to replicate the psychological pressures of a long space voyage. The astronauts will be locked inside for a year and a half: 250 days to Mars, followed by a month on the surface, and 240 days to get back.
Mark Belakovsky, head of the Mars 500 project, said Thursday: "We want applicants who are healthy and professional. They have to be intellectually tough."
PHOTO: AFP
Belakovsky, of the Institute of Biomedical Problems, said male and female applicants had to be aged 25 to 50. Doctors would be preferred, he said.
"We've had applicants from Britain," he added. "If British firms would like to supply us with books, films, or food we would be happy to hear from them."
The institute and the European Space Agency (ESA) are separately considering applications for the mock voyage as well as two experiments in November and early 2008, also with crews of six.
ESA will select two of the six crew members. "So far, 4,600 people have applied. Most say that they've been interested in space flight since childhood but for personal reasons haven't got round to it," an ESA spokeswoman said.
Once the main study gets under way crew members will remain on board for the duration, barring emergencies. "They will have taken off, and that's it," Belakovsky said.
Astronauts will be exposed to all aspects of life in space, apart from radiation and weightlessness. Communicating with mission control will be subject to a 20-minute delay: the time taken to send a signal to Earth. Before they "land," three astronauts destined to "live" on Mars will spend a month in a separate module, lying on their backs with their heads lower than their feet to simulate zero gravity.
The crew will spend most of their time in a 150m3 living module, which has personal cabins, as well as a common room and kitchen. Volunteers will be paid for taking part in the study.
All food and water will be taken on board before the trip. Alcohol and smoking will be forbidden, and sex frowned upon. "It's not a reality show - it is a serious pioneering research experiment," Belakovsky said, adding that there would be moments of tension. "If you and your girlfriend were to shut yourselves in a room for three days, five days, a month - believe me, you would have a million problems. Either she would strangle you or you would strangle her."
Belakovsky conceded that a real manned mission to Mars was unlikely to get under way before the late 2020s. In 2004, US President George Bush described landing on Mars as a long-term goal of Nasa. The European Space Agency hopes to get humans there by 2035.
In the meantime, experts are unsure whether Mars, which has polar ice caps that make it the most Earth-like planet in the solar system, might harbor life. Several probes have failed to find proof.
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
On April 17, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) launched a bold campaign to revive and revitalize the KMT base by calling for an impromptu rally at the Taipei prosecutor’s offices to protest recent arrests of KMT recall campaigners over allegations of forgery and fraud involving signatures of dead voters. The protest had no time to apply for permits and was illegal, but that played into the sense of opposition grievance at alleged weaponization of the judiciary by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “annihilate” the opposition parties. Blamed for faltering recall campaigns and faced with a KMT chair
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
RSS