Wanted: Emirati to live in isolation for eight months

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emirati, eight months, isolation

Candidates will be thoroughly vetted before the main crew member and a backup is announced in May 2020.

By Tamanna Sajeed

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Published: Mon 17 Feb 2020, 10:22 PM

One Emirati will get the chance of a lifetime to be part of an eight-month mission in a Martian environment, a top official from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) has revealed. He or she will join five others from around the world and live in isolation at an analogue facility in Moscow.
The UAE Analog Mission#1 - which is part of the Roscosmos' (the Russian space agency) Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station (SIRIUS) - will help assess the impact of isolation on people.
"Research will focus on the psychological and physical impacts that staying in a small space with the same people could have on candidates," said Adnan Al Rais, the Mars 2117 programme manager at the MBRSC, during a Press briefing on Sunday. During the mission, candidates will be able to communicate with the 24/7 operations centre via radio, but with a 30-40 minute delay - just like how it would be if they were on Mars. "They will also be able to receive news updates from 'Earth' and talk to their families in this fashion, while constantly being monitored on camera by the operations centre.
"Candidates are also encouraged to keep fit on board, with a gym being provided to allow them to exercise daily. A health centre is also provided on board, and candidates will have to periodically take blood samples for testing. Food and other essentials will be replenished every two weeks, with the menu mainly consisting of freeze-dried space food most astronauts eat aboard the International Space Station."
Al Rais stressed on the importance of multiculturalism in this venture, saying that humanity is the ultimate goal. "Some of the researches will be studying the effects of space on human genetics, cardiovascular health and the psychological effects of long-term isolation, with many more aspects of the experience to be explored throughout the mission," said Al Rais.
The mission is to be completed in collaboration with international space agencies - Roscosmos, Nasa and the European Space Agency. The ground-based analogue facility in Moscow had famously hosted the Mars 500 study, where subjects were held in confinement for over 520 days.
The Emirati connect
Emiratis can register for the programme by sending an application to analog.mission@mbrsc.ae. Candidates will be thoroughly vetted before the main crew member and a backup is announced in May 2020. They will then undergo a rigorous training regime from May until the mission begins in November 2020.
"They will train with our international partners for over six months to be prepared and ready for this challenging mission," said Al Rais.
Candidates will be trained to live in the isolated and confined chambers. They will also learn to operate the robotic and AI-based tools that will help them survive and conduct experiments and medical tests.
"It is an eight-month long mission; they have to be ready and prepared for the whole idea of being in isolation and confinement without having any direct communication with the outside world," said Al Rais. "If one of the crew members can't continue for the full eight months, it will jeopardise the whole mission."
Global collaboration for future
Al Rais said the mission will cement the UAE's international reputation as a hub of research and development for the future. "CrewONE will have six members coming from different backgrounds and among them will be an Emirati," Al Rais said.
He said this endeavour would be the UAE's chance to fill in the gaps in the knowledge required for the country's Mars 2117 project, which aims to establish human colonies on the Red Planet by 2117.
(Tamanna is an intern at Khaleej Times)


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