The submarine
The Portuguese Navy has allocated a Tridente-class military submarine to implement the European Space Agency's SubSea project. It is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of long-term stay of people in a confined space when they perform particularly responsible missions. This is a kind of imitation of space flight over long distances, for example, to Mars and other planets.
Humanity has been using submarines for more than a century, and nuclear submarines, which can remain in complete isolation for months, for at least half a century. Accordingly, all key aspects of safety, vital activity and maintaining the mental health of the crew inside have long been worked out. However, the ESA has its own tasks that differ from the typical work of submariners, so the agency decided to use the submarines to conduct its own research.
The submarine
The SubSea project will involve 25 volunteers from universities in Germany, Portugal and Italy. They will have to spend 60 days underwater, under conditions of increasing stress and boredom. These people have no military training, so you should expect difficulties with discipline and maintaining a healthy atmosphere in the team. But this is precisely the main subject of the study. The first, the trial group, has already returned from a short trip underwater. Biomaterials were collected from them to measure stress markers and immune status. It has long been proven that a person is able to physically and mentally adapt to life under stress and isolation, but exactly how best to do this is still questionable.
Alexander Martynenko
