The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will pay people who are willing to spend eight months in lockdown to serve as a simulation for future missions to the Moon and Mars. According to Fox News' latest report, before NASA sends astronauts to Mars, which is the space agency's long term goal, it is looking for people who are willing to act like they're headed to the Red Planet.
This is not the first time that NASA has offered people to stay in lockdown since the space agency conducted a similar four-month study in 2019. According to NASA's 2019 report, a four-month analog mission served as a spacecraft, lunar lander, and home for the crew members of Scientific International Research.
The unique terrestrial station called SIRIUS-19 served as a metal habitat for the crew members which provided important results that gave NASA essential data to successfully achieve the space agency's goals of sending astronauts to the Moon. The space mission is part of the Artemis program that will eventually lead to future Mars missions.
Four Russians and two Americans are part of the international crew that spent the duration of the analog mission in Russia's Institute for Biomedical Problems' Nazemnyy eksperimental'nyy kompleks (NEK) facility. Researchers were able to observe their psychological, physiological, and behavioral responses during the mission simulation. NEK is a multi-chamber facility that is identified as a key hazard of long-duration human spaceflight that uses analog for confinement and isolation.
NASA will pay people who volunteer in an 8-month lockdown to simulate future missions to Mars and the Moon
Scientists and other researchers have been studying the effects of spaceflight on human performance and health since the Apollo era. The effects of prolonged exposure to spaceflight hazards were progressively studied by NASA's Human Research Program as missions increased in length.
"Social isolation is a very important area for us to research. It is associated with higher levels of stress and affects physiological and psychological well-being," said Thomas Williams, a scientist for the Human Facaros and Behavioral Performance Element.
NASA is currently looking for six individuals who are willing to be isolated in Moscow, Russia for eight months, to help the space agency better understand the effects of long-duration space missions to the health of the astronauts who will be deployed by Artemis program to the Moon and Mars.
However, NASA is not looking for just regular people. Applicants must be US citizens between 30 and 55 years old, speak English and Russian proficiently, have completed military officer mission, and have a college degree--preferably medical--master's, or doctorate degree. However, NASA clarified that those with bachelor degrees and are willing to participate will be accepted as candidates for the simulation mission.
