Six "astronauts" will spend several weeks at a special station - until the end of October
TEL AVIV, October 12. /TASS/. An international experiment to simulate life and work on Mars has begun in the Negev Desert in southern Israel. It involves six "astronauts" from Israel, Austria, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal - five men and one woman. This is reported by the Times of Israel.
The model of the Martian base was created in a crater about 500 meters deep and about 40 kilometers wide. Six astronauts will live on this station until the end of October.
The experiment takes place within the framework of the AMADEE research program of the Austrian Space Forum. The purpose of the program is to develop hardware, test workflows and scientific developments for future flights to other planets. Similar missions take place every two or three years in different countries, in 2019 it took place in the Sultanate of Oman and lasted 4 weeks.
To conduct the experiment, a geodesic dome was built in Israel, simulating the astronauts' base on Mars. It is provided with life support systems, as well as research equipment, solar panels and antennas. The participants of the experiment will be completely isolated from the world for three weeks. Outside the station, they will move only in spacesuits, and for long-distance travel they will use the "rover".
As the organizers of the mission noted, the area of the Negev desert chosen for the experiment is very similar to the surface of Mars. Thanks to this, it is possible to study various aspects of the activities of researchers on this planet.
In mid-February 2018, a four-day experiment to simulate the life and work of the D-MARS scientific station on the Red Planet has already taken place in the Negev Desert. Six people also participated in this experiment.
