mars 500 experiment

Simulated Human Spaceflight to Mars

Start your flight to Mars

Scientists have not yet determined whether there is life on Mars. They have also never been there to find out. A roundtrip flight to the Red Planet would take about two years. Would a human be able to withstand such a challenge? This question has constantly been on our minds, and now a manned mission to Mars is not science fiction any more.

The Mars-500 experiment, in which 6 volunteers will stay in a confined simulated spacecraft for about 500 days, will provide an answer to this question. To experience what the flight to Mars is like, visit the new Google project. You'll be able to watch detailed video reports about Mars-500 and take a virtual tour of Mars. Walk along the Valles Marineris canyons, climb the Olympus Mons, take a peek into the Gusev crater or climb down into one of Mars' lakes.

Renowned Russian Science Fiction writers including Sergey Lukyanenko, Alexander Gromov, Dmitry Kolodan and others will be composing a novel about the experience during the simulation. Each week, one of them will add a chapter to the novel. Read and dream with us!

Mars 500: Training Astronauts for a Manned Mission to Mars

What happens when you put five astronauts in a small ship for 500 days and fly them to Mars? This is the fourth part in an eight-part series on...

I have absolutely lost the feeling for … the total length of time we have spent inside the module now. It seems like three to four weeks, but the calendar proves that it has been 105 days and we will leave the facility later today.

You need to realize that the isolation you are in is more valuable (in all senses) than the life you could have had outside, with your family and friends, with all of the possible good moments or potential important achievements you could have accomplished.

Explorers dropped GoPro camera into America's deepest unobstructed pit and the clip is giving people chills

Receptionist serves up sassy response after customer demanded 4th-floor room at a 3-floor hotel

Researchers tested a bottle of Fiji Water against a glass of tap water and here's what they found

A guy asked why his dog had become so protective of his wife — the Internet guessed the right reason

Man can't believe his eyes when old landlord sends him $2,500 check as a ‘share’ after selling home

Mars500: The First Preparation of Long-Duration Space Exploration Missions—Results and Implications for a Holistic Stress and Immune Research Approach

• First Online: 28 November 2019

Cite this chapter

• Thu Jennifer Ngo-Anh 2 ,
• Andrea Rossiter 2 ,
• Alexander Suvorov 3 ,
• Galina Vassilieva 3 &
• Vadim Gushin 3  

1445 Accesses

ESA’s science program during the Mars500 experiment covered all systems of the human body and demonstrated convincingly that isolation and confinement lead to whole-body effects requiring an all-encompassing holistic view on potential countermeasures. The Mars500 crewmembers acted as subjects in scientific investigations to assess the effect that isolation has on various psychological and physiological aspects, such as stress, hormone regulation and immunity, sleep quality, mood, and the effectiveness of dietary supplements.

The Mars500 program, the longest high-fidelity spaceflight simulation ever conducted, represented an invaluable opportunity to investigate the human physiological adaptation to prolonged confinement while monitoring any problems future space explorers might face during their missions. The Mars500 experiment allowed evaluating, for the first time, the impact of long-lasting isolated confinement conditions, with a lack of social interaction, reduced contact with the environment, restricted resources, and mostly tinned food, ready or semi-ready for consumption. Operational validity of the simulation included a spaceship-like habitat, continuous isolation from the Earth’s environment, realistic mission activities, a mid-mission landing on a simulated Mars surface, accurate mission duration and timeline, operations between crew and mission controllers, communication delays inherent to interplanetary travel, limited consumable resources, exercise equipment for physical fitness, a diurnal weekly work schedule, crew control of habitat lighting, and video monitoring of the crew in habitat common areas.

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Ngo-Anh, T.J., Rossiter, A., Suvorov, A., Vassilieva, G., Gushin, V. (2020). Mars500: The First Preparation of Long-Duration Space Exploration Missions—Results and Implications for a Holistic Stress and Immune Research Approach. In: Choukèr, A. (eds) Stress Challenges and Immunity in Space. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16996-1_37

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Staying Put on Earth, Taking a Step to Mars

By Michael Schwirtz

• March 30, 2009

MOSCOW — On Tuesday, six people will be voluntarily locked into a cloister of cramped, hermetically sealed tubes woven inside a Moscow research facility the size of a high school gymnasium. They will eat dehydrated food, breathe recycled air and be denied conversation with practically everyone else but one another.

And they must stay inside for 105 days.

In a small step in the direction of Mars, the international crew is embarking on a simulated flight to the planet to test the limits of human tolerance for the isolation and monotony of interplanetary travel.

“It is really like a real space flight without the weightlessness and the danger to our lives,” said Sergei N. Ryazansky, a cosmonaut-in-training who will lead the mission. “On the inside, we will have a lack of incoming information, so it’s the science of sensory deprivation.”

Called Mars-500, the Russian-led project based at the Institute for Biomedical Problems here will culminate in a 520-day simulation beginning early next year of a complete manned mission to the planet — a time frame that incorporates launching to Mars touchdown and back — that scientists hope will edge humanity a little closer to that next giant leap.

An actual manned mission to Mars may be more than 20 years away, but Russian scientists, backed by the nation’s leaders, are keen to take a lead role in laying the foundation. The Mars-500 project is moving forward despite the dire economic situation in Russia; the prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, has pledged not to cut financing to the space industry.

Russia’s research into manned space flights has taken on added importance as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States prepares to shut down the space shuttle program, leaving Russia with a monopoly on manned launchings until NASA’s new Ares rockets take flight.

But for scientists and cosmonauts involved in the project, the cosmic competition that defined the cold war and the race to the Moon has given way to a new spirit of international cooperation. In addition to Russian space agencies, the Mars-500 project involves scientists from organizations like the European Space Agency and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute based in Houston.

“We are proud that we have an experiment that has received wide international coverage and that has attracted the top scientists of other countries,” said Mark S. Belakovsky, the project’s deputy director. “We are working not only for ourselves but for the future of humanity.”

Mr. Belakovsky and others working on the project say only an international effort will be able to overcome the daunting obstacles to any future manned mission to Mars. Crews must be protected from hazardous radiation and muscle and bone atrophy caused by long-term weightlessness, not to mention the myriad potential pitfalls that will follow that first step onto Mars.

Protecting crews from themselves, however, poses special challenges.

Interplanetary travel will markedly differ from long-term missions in orbit around Earth, where crews remain in contact with mission control, receiving assistance from specialists on the ground and well wishes from family and friends. On a mission to Mars, astronauts will have to contend with communication gaps of as long as 20 minutes.

“Working in such conditions requires that a person be able to check himself, evaluate his condition in relation to the crew and in relation to mission control and be able to correct himself,” said Boris V. Marukov, the experiment’s director and a former crew member on the International Space Station. “He will be a psychotherapist for himself.”

Despite the risks and expense, many scientists think the potential scientific gains from a manned Mars voyage will outweigh the advantages of interplanetary exploration by robots.

“Unless there is a huge breakthrough in artificial intelligence, having the human being on site, being able to make scientific decisions on the fly, in real time — there is really little substitute for that,” said Jim Logan, a former chief of medical operations at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The longest a human has spent in space is 438 days, a record set by Valery V. Polyakov when he returned from the Russian space station, Mir, in 1995. His safe and healthy return, he said in an interview, showed that “it is possible to preserve your physical and psychological health throughout a mission similar in length to a flight to Mars and back.”

Volunteers for the first leg of Mars-500 — four Russians, a German and a Frenchman — will oversee and participate in more than 70 experiments testing fluctuations in metabolism, sleep-wake cycles and the cardiovascular and immune systems under conditions of prolonged isolation. Another experiment will study cross-cultural compatibility in the expectation that any real Mars mission will involve an international crew.

The mock spacecraft consists of four hermetically sealed modules built in the 1970s for isolation experiments ahead of missions aboard Soviet space stations and later the International Space Station. A section was recently added in which participants in the 520-day experiment will simulate a Mars landing.

The facility’s wood-paneled interior maintains a particularly Soviet aesthetic, but it has been equipped with new life-support systems to be tested during the Mars-500 project. Volunteers will tend experimental greenhouses that scientists hope will provide fresh vegetables and sights and smells of home.

Scientists in a control center at the Institute of Biomedical Problems will monitor the activities of the crew via video cameras mounted in most sections of the facility, watching for stress and tension among crewmembers. They will largely keep out of the crew’s affairs and will impose the 20-minute communication delay anticipated on a real Mars mission during the final 35 days of the experiment.

Amid a stream of mock emergency situations and inevitable disagreements between crewmates, the volunteers will endeavor to keep emotional control.

Past experiments in long-term isolation have shown how intergroup conflicts can endanger a mission. During a nine-month simulated Earth-orbit mission starting in 1999 and conducted at the same Moscow institute, a male Russian’s attempt to kiss a female Canadian colleague ended in accusations of sexual harassment and the Russians’ being barred from the woman’s module.

Mr. Ryazansky, who took part in that experiment, is optimistic that advancements in space psychology have made these kinds of conflicts less likely. And while he does not think he will actually ever fly to Mars, he believes his work on Mars-500 will allow him at least to see a manned mission in his lifetime.

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Mock Mars mission reveals salty surprise

By Andy Coghlan

8 January 2013

Pass the sodium chloride, please

(Image: ESA/Mars 500 Crew)

They survived a “mission to Mars” that helped us understand the challenges of long-term isolation. Now the crew who participated in a mock trip to the Red Planet may have helped overturn a long-standing assumption of how our body deals with dietary salt .

The Mars 500 mission , which ended in November 2011 , was a dry run for a real Mars mission. It saw six volunteers confined for 520 days in a mocked-up spacecraft at the State Research Centre Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. It also provided a chance to perform otherwise difficult experiments on diet.

It is known that dietary salt is rapidly excreted in urine. As it passes through the kidneys it helps them to eliminate unwanted fluids. But too much salt in the bloodstream can hamper the ability of kidneys to remove water, increasing blood pressure and adversely affecting health.

It is a challenge to measure the long-term effects of salt because of difficulties in regulating dietary intake. However, Mars 500 “mission controllers” were able to dictate the amount of salt that the crew received each day.

During this mission, and a preliminary mission with a different crew that lasted 105 days, 12 crew members consumed either 6, 9 or 12 grams of salt per day for 29 to 60 days. Previous research suggests that there should be roughly the same amount of salt in urine as has been eaten that day.

Instead, the crew excreted different amounts each day, revealing a six to seven-day cycle of salt retention and excretion. The patterns varied between crew members, but were consistent within individuals. For example, on a 12-gram daily salt diet a crew member might excrete as little as 6 grams on day three of the cycle, and peak at 18 grams on day five.

Sleepy time

The fluctuations tallied with levels of the hormones aldosterone and cortisol. It is not yet known why the cycles lasted six to seven days. Jens Titze of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, who headed the study, suspects it could be influenced by sleep.

In the 105-day mission, crew members performed a night shift every six days. Blood pressure on the morning after a night shift was higher compared with day shifts. No night shifts were performed during the experiment on the longer mission, however.

Graham MacGregor of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine in London says the results are fascinating, but adds that they don’t compromise previous studies. “It doesn’t matter if there are [cyclic] fluctuations, because if you average single results across a large number of people, you’ll still get a close correlation between the salt going in and out,” he says.

Salt stores

Together with previous animal studies, the fluctuations indicate that salt might be stored away from the kidneys, which might otherwise sustain damage through salt overload. Subsequent MRI scans performed by Titze suggest that muscle and skin may also store salt. These results will be published in March, but more work will be needed to identify how such storage might affect health.

In another study published this week from the Mars 500 experiment, researchers report that the “cosmonauts” slept for longer periods, and became less physically active, the longer the mission went on. In the first quarter of the 520-day mission, the six crew members averaged 7.12 hours of sleep a day, which increased to 7.7 hours during the final quarter ( PNAS , DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1212646110).

More sophisticated lighting could improve acclimatisation to the required daily sleep cycle in future experiments or indeed aboard long-haul space modules. Blue light intensity is particularly important, says Mathias Basner of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, for setting day-night cycles , so lighting could be more carefully attuned to this intensity in future.

Journal reference: Cell Metabolism , DOI: 10.1016/j.cemet.2012.11.013

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Mars 500: the story of a 520-day simulated mission to Mars

A Mars trip is a long journey. How to stay mentally healthy during the long trip is an important issue.

Between 2007 and 2011, Russia, the European Space Agency and China conducted the Mars-500 project – an experiment on a space travel simulator – to examine the impact of psychological isolation on people’s mental health during a deep space mission.

Six males aged 28 – 37 participated in the study. Their backgrounds included engineering, biology, medicine, and human spaceflight.

All crew members lived and worked in a mock-up spacecraft.

The main phases in the 520-day simulation consisted of starting the simulation, traveling to Mars, landing on Mars, doing activities on Mars, returning to Earth, and completing the project.

After the project, researchers invited each crew member to tell a story about his experience.

Many members mentioned that their goals were to learn about space missions, meet new scientists from the world, learn new scientific methods, and earn money.

Crew members also described their technical adaptation of the Mars trip, and some mentioned a “feeling-down” mood due to the repetition of the experiment every day.

Outside news (e.g., a mining accident in Chile), emergency situations, and celebrations (e.g., birthdays) created breaks in monotony and made crew members feel better.

Undoubtedly, the peak experience came when they reached Mars. All the members were very excited and believed that it was worth the hard work.

After 30 days of the Mars work, they started to return to Earth. Crew members needed to fill questionnaires, finish health checks, and complete physiological measurements. Their mood and motivation declined, and outside news influenced their emotions.

During the return to Earth, members had a new food to eat, and it opened ways to other topics, such as culture and history. Crew members perceived cultural differences positively.

Language differences caused some problems at the beginning of the trip, but later members could understand each other with verbal and non-verbal communication.

At the end of the simulation trip, members could contact their families and close friends by phone. This improved the team’s mood, and they knew that life isolation would come to an end soon.

Researchers concluded that the team handled the long trip in good psychological shape under the tough conditions: restriction of food and information, little fresh air, no nature and sunlight, and separation from their loved ones.

This 520-day mission yielded important data on the physiological, social and psychological effects of long-term isolation in an interplanetary trip.

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Isolation Tips From An ESA MARS-500 Crew Member Who Took Part in A Simulated Space Mission To Mars

From MARS-500 mission to COVID-19 restrictive measures: advices for facing quarantine and isolation.

Diego Urbina is an engineer who took part in an experiment conducted on the ground to simulate conditions of human isolation that could  be faced in a future expedition to the planet Mars.

From his home in Brussels, where he has been confined for a week by the Coronavirus pandemic, Urbina provides some tips to resist these days’ “imprisonment”. Like millions of citizens around the world, Diego also lives with concern the current situation and tries to adapt his behavior to the new scenario created by COVID-19.

But Diego has a significant advantage: in 2010, along with five colleagues from the European Space Agency (ESA), he took part in the experimental mission MARS-500 , a project that simulated a trip to Mars in which they stayed for 520 days inside a special complex (located on the Institute of Biomedical Problems’ site in Moscow), completely isolated from the outside world.

Here is the testimony he gave to the journalist Antonio Martinéz Ron , from Vozpópuli media outlet .

“It’s like a deja-vu, although today’s situation is clearly different, because this coronavirus is no longer a simulation. I believe that my experience during the MARS-500 mission can serve to give some advice on how to better organize and use our daily time,” Urbina explains.

Task diversification.

“First we must be aware that now we will have a certain period of time at our disposal, which we had previously occupied in social activities (work, hobbies, sports). It can be heavy, but on the other hand we must see the benefit: we can take advantage of this time to study and learn new things. In our case, our 6-crew member team of MARS-500 didn’t have an internet connection and we could communicate externally only by email.

We only had books and few things, so that once our planned activities are finished we have 8 hours free each day. So I started studying Russian, to better communicate with my mission mates. And I also learned to draw; in the end I made some drawings and that made me very happy. These activities helped me to keep my mind more active, and a not falling into a spiral of laziness that caused damage in my daily activities, where we also simulated stressful situation, as a real space mission.

We read a lot: during year of MARS-500 mission I read about 30 books. Currently, however, in my daily life I have very little time to read. Remembering that period, I must admit that I miss having all that available time.”

Timetable organization.

According to Diego Urbina, it’s very important to organize the hours, so as not to interrupt the biological rhythms of the human body.

“In our case, we had no chance of being exposed to the sun. The lack of light alters the heart rhythms, so we were exposed to a special blue light. It also altered the metabolism, for which we were forced to take vitamin D. That’s why I recommend you take advantage of the daylight hours, perhaps by spending time near the windows. Since we are entering the months with more light of the year, this should not be a big problem.

It’s also important not to alter our sleep patterns. We have to set very regular times, to avoid getting up too late and doing nothing all morning, as it can negatively affect our sleep patterns. In the case of our MARS-500 project, we were trying various ways to organize daily activities.

For example, dealing with the cleaning activities, we understood that the best way was to do them one day a week, all together, at the same time, so it was also fun and broke the routine. In addition to doing new things every day, it’s also important to distribute the tasks, and at the same time alternate them.”

Do exercise.

“For any space mission, physical exercise is mandatory, because in microgravity conditions the muscle tissue deteriorates very quickly if there is no physical activity. For people who are home these days for the COVID-19 emergency, this is a key factor. Here in Brussels jogging is allowed, but in places like Italy where this alternative doesn’t exist it’s possible to do many exercises in limited spaces, such as the living room at home. If this current situation seems overwhelming to you, it may perhaps comfort you to know that during the simulated mission we faced additional difficulties that made it even more complicated: we had to take urine samples every day to keep our values in check; we didn’t have services such as internet connection or telephone (which now we take for granted); while we simulated the communications that will be made when we go to Mars we couldn’t speak directly to anyone else besides ourselves; and we haven’t seen sunlight for many months.”

“Our crew of the MARS-500 mission were alternately given some menus, always taking care that it was a healthy and varied diet. After eight months, however, we got a little bored with the food cycle. I therefore recommend changing dishes as much as possible. It’s also very important to limit the goodies, and don’t eat sweets every day, even if it’s tempting. The positive side of the isolation period is that you don’t have such easy access to ‘junk food’ and that you can cook at home. In this way you have the opportunity to see what we are about to eat, know its nutritional value, and balance it well so as to be healthier after isolation.”

Psychological conflicts.

“In space missions, like a Mars trip, the possibility of conflicts between people is one of the greatest risks; which in a situation like the one we are living now can become relevant. We must learn to have a special patience. It’s quite complicated to manage conflicts, because there can be many different variables. Our crew of the MARS-500 mission have been facilitated, because ESA psychologists had previously excluded potentially problematic people during selection phase. The technique we used during the 520 day isolation was not necessarily to sit around a table and talk to each other directly; when there was some friction, we tried to address issues less explicitly, doing nice things for each other. It’s an easy way to act, without the need to impose or criticize, to get everyone back in a good mood. In real life these days you have to be very tolerant, and understand the other person’s needs. We will probably be locked up for many days: there is no point in being in a bad mood with someone for the rest of the time.”

Conclusions.

“When the simulation of the MARS-500 project was over, when we came out of isolation after having been so long without seeing anyone, without even seeing the sun, nature and animals, it was a very positive shock. We were able to see all those normal things again. Even the simple sight of a tree was a marvel. The first time we saw the sun rise, heard a dog bark or looked after a child, it was an emotion.

Now it will be a little less intense, but for all of us it will still be a good opportunity to appreciate all the usual things we took for granted every day. It certainly will be like this when this coronavirus emergency is overcome.”

A special thank you to Emiliano Guerra for translating the interview and to Antonio Martinéz Ron for allowing us to publish part of his article. Make sure you follow ESA MARS-500 crew member Diego Urbina on Facebook here and Twitter here .

• European Space Agency

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Scientists Just Emerged From a Year in Isolation After an Epic NASA-Funded Mars Simulation

The longest-running NASA experiment of its kind designed to simulate living conditions on Mars has come to an end, with six volunteers emerging from a year-long stay in a sealed dome in Hawaii.

For 365 days , the HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) crew lived in isolation in a geodesic dome on the barren slopes of the Big Island's Mauna Loa, with the rocky, sparse terrain outside chosen for its similarity to the red planet's natural environment.

During the year, the team members could only leave their sealed habitat wearing space suits, and their only contact with the outside world came in the form of emails – which were delayed for 20 minutes either way, so as to emulate how long actual emails would take to send between Earth and Mars.

The experiment – funded by NASA and run by the University of Hawaii – is the longest yet in a series of ongoing HI-SEAS simulations designed to see how scientists cope with the extreme, long-term isolation that would have to be endured by astronauts and researchers during a real-life Mars mission.

While previous jaunts have seen scientists enclosed in the habitat for up to eight months, this team set a new NASA record by lasting an entire year.

But they're nowhere near the effort of Europe and China's Mars–500 team , who participated in a similar experiment between 2007 and 2011, and managed to last a staggering 520 days in a Mars simulation.

The tone from the latest HI-SEAS crew is upbeat and optimistic, suggesting that the emotional and technical rigours of a long-term stay in a sealed-off space dome are not unviable for future travellers to the red planet.

"I can give you my personal impression which is that a mission to Mars in the close future is realistic," said one of the team, French astrobiologist Cyprien Verseux . "I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome."

In addition to Verseux, the crew consisted of a physicist, an architect, a soil scientist, a neuroscientist, and an engineer.

This bunch not only had to contend with being isolated from the rest of humanity, but also with having to live in such close proximity to each other in extremely confined quarters – the dome measures just 11 by 6 metres (36 by 20 feet).

"It is kind of like having roommates that just are always there and you can never escape them," mission commander Carmel Johnston told media this week, "so I'm sure some people can imagine what that is like, and if you can't then just imagine never being able to get away from anybody."

Everything the crew survived on during their year 'on Mars' they had to bring with them, meaning they essentially ate a lot of things like powdered food and canned tuna.

In addition to serving as guinea pigs so we can better understand the psychological effects of spending so long in a sealed environment, the researchers also ran a number of experiments, such as examining how to extract water from arid terrain, which could end up meaning the difference between life and death on Mars.

"Showing that it works, you can actually get water from the ground that is seemingly dry," said German researcher Christiane Heinicke . "It would work on Mars and the implication is that you would be able to get water on Mars from this little greenhouse construct."

But the biggest challenge was staving off boredom, with the team having to devise ways of keeping themselves entertained, such as learning salsa dancing and playing the ukulele.

"We were always in the same place, always with the same people," Verseux said .

His advice to new volunteers who will take part in new long-term HI-SEAS isolation experiments beginning in 2017 and 2018? "Bring books."

The team is now being debriefed, and research looking at how well they fared psychologically during their 12 months of isolation is expected to be published in the coming months.

And the sweet part of the deal for us is that, since NASA recently made all the research it funds available for free , we won't have to wait too long to find out just what happens during a year in (almost) space.

But for now, the researchers are entitled to a holiday, and what better place to enjoy a little R&R than Hawaii? And you don't just have to take it from me:

Congrats to NASA and the scientists taking us a step closer to Mars. Now enjoy Hawaii and get a shave ice! https://t.co/lFZjSnn38x — President Obama (@POTUS44) August 29, 2016

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Here’s how curiosity’s sky crane changed the way nasa explores mars.

• Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Evolution of a Mars Landing

Rover on a rope, news media contacts.

Twelve years ago, NASA landed its six-wheeled science lab using a daring new technology that lowers the rover using a robotic jetpack.

NASA’s Curiosity rover mission is celebrating a dozen years on the Red Planet, where the six-wheeled scientist continues to make big discoveries as it inches up the foothills of a Martian mountain. Just landing successfully on Mars is a feat, but the Curiosity mission went several steps further on Aug. 5, 2012, touching down with a bold new technique: the sky crane maneuver.

A swooping robotic jetpack delivered Curiosity to its landing area and lowered it to the surface with nylon ropes, then cut the ropes and flew off to conduct a controlled crash landing safely out of range of the rover.

Of course, all of this was out of view for Curiosity’s engineering team, which sat in mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, waiting for seven agonizing minutes before erupting in joy when they got the signal that the rover landed successfully.

The sky crane maneuver was born of necessity: Curiosity was too big and heavy to land as its predecessors had — encased in airbags that bounced across the Martian surface. The technique also added more precision, leading to a smaller landing ellipse .

During the February 2021 landing of Perseverance, NASA’s newest Mars rover, the sky crane technology was even more precise: The addition of something called terrain relative navigation enabled the SUV-size rover to touch down safely in an ancient lake bed riddled with rocks and craters.

JPL has been involved in NASA’s Mars landings since 1976, when the lab worked with the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, on the two stationary Viking landers, which touched down using expensive, throttled descent engines.

For the 1997 landing of the Mars Pathfinder mission, JPL proposed something new: As the lander dangled from a parachute, a cluster of giant airbags would inflate around it. Then three retrorockets halfway between the airbags and the parachute would bring the spacecraft to a halt above the surface, and the airbag-encased spacecraft would drop roughly 66 feet (20 meters) down to Mars, bouncing numerous times — sometimes as high as 50 feet (15 meters) — before coming to rest.

It worked so well that NASA used the same technique to land the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2004. But that time, there were only a few locations on Mars where engineers felt confident the spacecraft wouldn’t encounter a landscape feature that could puncture the airbags or send the bundle rolling uncontrollably downhill.

“We barely found three places on Mars that we could safely consider,” said JPL’s Al Chen, who had critical roles on the entry, descent, and landing teams for both Curiosity and Perseverance.

It also became clear that airbags simply weren’t feasible for a rover as big and heavy as Curiosity. If NASA wanted to land bigger spacecraft in more scientifically exciting locations, better technology was needed.

In early 2000, engineers began playing with the concept of a “smart” landing system. New kinds of radars had become available to provide real-time velocity readings — information that could help spacecraft control their descent. A new type of engine could be used to nudge the spacecraft toward specific locations or even provide some lift, directing it away from a hazard. The sky crane maneuver was taking shape.

JPL Fellow Rob Manning worked on the initial concept in February 2000, and he remembers the reception it got when people saw that it put the jetpack above the rover rather than below it.

“People were confused by that,” he said. “They assumed propulsion would always be below you, like you see in old science fiction with a rocket touching down on a planet.”

Manning and colleagues wanted to put as much distance as possible between the ground and those thrusters. Besides stirring up debris, a lander’s thrusters could dig a hole that a rover wouldn’t be able to drive out of. And while past missions had used a lander that housed the rovers and extended a ramp for them to roll down, putting thrusters above the rover meant its wheels could touch down directly on the surface, effectively acting as landing gear and saving the extra weight of bringing along a landing platform.

But engineers were unsure how to suspend a large rover from ropes without it swinging uncontrollably. Looking at how the problem had been solved for huge cargo helicopters on Earth (called sky cranes), they realized Curiosity’s jetpack needed to be able to sense the swinging and control it.

“All of that new technology gives you a fighting chance to get to the right place on the surface,” said Chen.

Best of all, the concept could be repurposed for larger spacecraft — not only on Mars, but elsewhere in the solar system. “In the future, if you wanted a payload delivery service, you could easily use that architecture to lower to the surface of the Moon or elsewhere without ever touching the ground,” said Manning.

More About the Mission

Curiosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more about Curiosity, visit:

science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity

Andrew Good Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-2433 [email protected]

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 [email protected] / [email protected]

Related Terms

• Curiosity (Rover)
• Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
• Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS)

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Two NASA astronauts could remain stuck on the International Space Station until next year

NASA is wrestling with how and when to bring back two astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) after repeatedly delaying their return aboard the trouble-plagued Boeing space capsule.

Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams have been up there since June 5, recently passing the two-month mark on what was supposed to be an eight-day mission.

The pair launched into orbit on the first crewed mission of Boeing's Starliner space capsule, which encountered technical difficulties during the journey up.

Testing is still being carried out on the capsule, with Boeing expressing confidence in its spacecraft but NASA experts remaining divided.

Do they take a chance and send them home soon in Starliner? Or wait and bring them back in February 2025 aboard Elon Musk's SpaceX Dragon rocket? 

A decision is expected to be made next week.

What's wrong with the spacecraft?

This is Boeing's first time launching astronauts, after flying a pair of empty Starliners that suffered from software issues and other problems.

Even before Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams blasted off in June, their capsule sprang a leak in propulsion-related plumbing. 

Boeing and NASA judged the small helium leak to be stable and isolated, and proceeded with the test flight, but as Starliner approached the space station the next day, four more leaks erupted. Five thrusters also failed.

The capsule managed to dock safely, and four of the thrusters ultimately worked. But engineers scrambled to identify the problem, conducting thruster test-firings on the ground and in space. 

After two months, the root cause of the thruster malfunctions is still unknown. All but one of the 28 thrusters seem functional, but the fear is that if too many break down again, the crew's safety could be jeopardised. 

Thrusters are critical in maintaining the right position of the capsule during its deorbit.

Are the two astronauts stranded?

NASA bristles at any suggestions that the pair is stranded or stuck.

The agency has stressed from the get-go that in an emergency at the space station, like a fire or decompression, Starliner could still be used as a lifeboat to leave.

Former NASA executive Scott Hubbard on Thursday said the astronauts were "kind of stuck", although certainly not stranded, adding they had plenty of supplies and still had lots of work to do.

If NASA decides to go with a SpaceX return, the pair would not simply board the Dragon currently docked with the ISS — a move which would leave other astronauts stranded without a lifeboat.

Instead, Starliner would be cut loose to open up the other one of the two docking spots reserved for US capsules, and SpaceX would then launch another Dragon to fill that slot.

Why might they have to wait until 2025?

Like Boeing's Starliner, SpaceX's Dragon is meant to carry four astronauts. 

To make room for Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams, NASA said it could bump two of the four astronauts due to launch to the space station next month with SpaceX. 

The empty seats would be reserved for the pair, but they would have to wait until February for their return when the remaining crew completes their mandatory minimum station mission of six months. 

Some missions have lasted a year. 

There's no thought given to ordering up a special SpaceX express, and the Dragon at the station now is the ride home next month for four residents.

This isn't the first time a US astronaut has had their stay extended.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and his two Russian crewmates ended up spending just over a year in space after their docked Soyuz capsule was hit by space junk and leaked all its coolant. An empty Russian capsule was sent up to bring them back last September.

What do the astronauts think about this?

Both Mr Wilmore, 61, and Ms Williams, 58, are retired Navy captains and longtime NASA astronauts who have previous space station missions behind them.

They previously said going into this test flight they expected to learn a lot about Starliner and how it operates. 

During a news conference from space in July , they assured reporters they were keeping busy, helping with repairs and research, and expressed confidence in the Starliner testing going on behind the scenes. 

There's been no public word from them yet on the prospects of an eight-month stay.

Are there enough supplies?

The astronauts' suitcases were removed from Starliner before lift-off to make room for equipment urgently needed for the space station's urine-into-drinking-water recycling system.

They have since made do with spare clothes already up there.

A supply ship finally arrived this week with their clothes, along with extra food and science experiments for the entire nine-person crew.

More supplies are due in a few months. 

As for air, the space station has its own oxygen-generating systems.

But despite the reserves, NASA would like to get back to normal as soon as possible.

Besides Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams, there are four other Americans and three Russians on board.

Why is NASA sticking with Starliner?

NASA deliberately hired two companies to get its crews to and from the space station, just as it did for delivering cargo.

The space agency considered it an insurance policy of sorts — if one crew or cargo provider was grounded, the other could carry the load.

"You want to have another alternative, both for cost reasons and for safety reasons and options," said Scott Hubbard, who served on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003.

"NASA needs Boeing to be successful."

Even with the latest setbacks, NASA insists it wants to keep using Boeing Starliners for astronaut rides. 

The goal is to send up one Dragon and one Starliner every year with crews, six months apart, until the station is retired in 2030. SpaceX has been at it since 2020.

What does Boeing say?

The aerospace company insists its capsule could still safely bring the astronauts home, however, it says it will take the steps necessary to bring the capsule back empty if NASA decides to do so.

Last week Boeing posted a list of all the tests that have been conducted on the thrusters since lift-off.

"We still believe in Starliner's capability and its flight rationale," it said.

A longtime space contractor, Boeing has had to overcome multiple Starliner problems over the years. 

The company had to launch an empty spacecraft twice before committing to a crew, repeating the initial flight test because of bad software and other issues. The delays have cost the company about $US1.6 billion ($2.4 billion) since 2016.

Mr Hubbard questioned whether NASA and Boeing should have launched the crew with the original helium leak, which cascaded into further issues.

"Whatever happens with the Starliner, they need to find out what the problem was and fix it," he said.

"And give everybody confidence they are still in the aerospace business in a major way."

• X (formerly Twitter)

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ESA prepares for a human mission to Mars

Starting in spring next year, a crew of six will be sent on a 500 day simulated mission to Mars. In reality the crew will remain in a special isolation facility in Russia. To investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration mission, such as to Mars, ESA is looking for experiment proposals for research to be carried out during their stay.

During the simulated Mars mission, known as Mars500, the crew will be put through all kinds of scenarios as if they really were travelling to the Red Planet – including a launch, an outward journey of up to 250 days, arrival at Mars and, after an excursion to the surface, they will face the long journey home.

Locked in the facility in Moscow, the crew will have tasks similar to those they would have on a real space mission. They will have to cope with simulated emergencies; they may even have real emergencies or illnesses. Communication delays of as much as 20 minutes each way will not make life any easier.

Instead of having a spacecraft as their home, the crew will live in a series of metal tanks. Using narrow connecting passages, they can move between a medical area, a research area, a crew compartment and a kitchen – an area of only 200m2. There is even a special tank representing the Mars descent vehicle for simulation of a stay on the Martian surface.

ESA will participate in the study organised by the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP), and hopes to learn how to prepare for a real mission to Mars in the future. Following an Announcement of Opportunity, ESA is now looking for scientific experiments that can be integrated into the study.

In an interview ESA scientist Marc Heppener told us more about the Mars500 study.

Why is ESA participating in this study?

Our main interest is to look at the psychology of such a mission, knowing that you are enclosed for 500 days. As soon as there is a problem, the crew knows that they are on their own, and they have to solve it themselves. The only help available from the outside is through communications which may take up to 40 minutes.

At the start of their mission the crew will be supplied with all the food they will have to live off for the duration of the study. They have to keep track of their consumables amongst themselves. This limited food supply could lead to additional tensions amongst the crew.

We want to look at the psychological effects of the situation on your mental well-being, and on your capabilities of performing certain tasks, even tasks critical to the mission. In a real mission, for example, whether you are able to land a vehicle on the surface of Mars, and are you able to do the science once you are there? How will group relations evolve? What are the potential dangers could we encounter? What kind of countermeasures can we invent that can prevent this? For us we can also learn about what types of personality we should select for a real mission.

Almost as important; we are keen to learn more about the medical procedures. How do you define a good medical environment so that you can treat diseases? What are the medicines that you want to take with you on the journey? There will be one person amongst the crew with real medical training. But of course that person can also fall ill. So you have to have all kinds of back-up scenarios. To think all of that through is really difficult. We think doing a full simulation will teach us a lot.

And what is ESA's involvement in carrying out this study?

We are still negotiating our contract with IBMP. The basic agreement is that we are a full partner in the project, which is largely funded by Roscosmos with an important involvement of the Russian Academy of Sciences. ESA will be involved at all levels.

We will propose two volunteers out of the six people in the facility. We will also be involved in the full mission definition – all the steering boards, medical boards, the operations team who are from the outside communicating with the crew inside. That is also very important for us. We have experience in having astronauts flying on the International Space Station, but having astronauts travelling to Mars is a whole different ball game. And we will also be able to propose a full set of science proposals that we want to be executed.

So exactly what kind of experiments are you looking for?

We have a first draft list of the kind of science we are looking for. Such as crew composition, the influence of confinement on sleep, mood and mental health, and the effect of differences in personality, cultural background and motivation. But also on the medical side – physiological adaptation to an isolated environment, stress effects on health and well-being, changes in the immune system.

These are just a few examples of what we came up with as first ideas – but we are open to all good scientific proposals. Following a peer review we will make our selection of the best science. The Russians will also make their selection, and then a steering committee integrates all the science projects into one final project.

I should add that in parallel to this Announcement of Opportunity we also send one out for research on the Concordia Station. There we cooperate with the French and Italian owners of this Antarctic research station. Concordia has a similar objective to the Mars study, although it is a very different environment. We hope actually that a lot of scientists will propose things in parallel to both studies because that would be interesting to compare.

The concept sounds a bit like a reality TV show – is that a fair comparison?

Well, yes and no! Honestly, I believe it is fair to look at it that way - you could even push the comparison pretty far. Both look at interaction between people in all kinds of different situations. If you want there is even a prize at the end – not in the simulation – but if it is a real mission you will be the first person to walk on the surface of Mars, which is huge prize!

The comparison comes to a very sharp dead-end though - we will do a serious science experiment, and this is actually the only way we can prepare ourselves properly for a really long-duration spaceflight mission.

In the final set-up we will make sure that this is a good environment that it is safe and people are doing serious work also inside the facility. It is not entertainment – not at all. Having said that, part of a mission to Mars would also be the press interest it generates. We are still considering whether we should simulate that aspect.

What kind of people will you be looking for?

People who go through this selection will find they are looked at pretty much the same way an astronaut is selected. With our knowledge of astronaut selection and our involvement in the selection of subjects for bed rest studies - we have some basic knowledge about the type of people who would fit in this type of study. We will apply those criteria.

Of course we do want to have a reasonable reflection of a real crew – there should be people with medical qualifications, there should be some engineering qualifications, some science – it should really reflect that type of crew you would put on a real mission to Mars. We might be a little bit less strict about physical capabilities.

The volunteers will need to be away from work and family for an extended period of time. You might be away from home for one and a half years, maybe even longer for the full duration of the study itself, but also for training before and for tests after the study: we will follow those people after they have returned. It might be that effects are still visible after a year or longer and we will want to include that in our data.

Will they be paid for taking part?

Yes, there will be some compensation although it will not be a big salary. Legally there are some rules about the amount you have to pay volunteers each day. We are still discussing this with our Russian colleagues.

When will you start the process of finding volunteers?

In mid-June we will call for volunteers – probably through an announcement on the web. Our own pre-selection will then be followed with a selection by the integrated IBMP/ESA team. We believe we are going to have the selection concluded by November this year.

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