Video - RussiaToday : SciTech : Russia inches towards mission to Mars


Air – or something that substitutes it - is crucial to human life, and the absence of a breathable atmosphere is one of the main obstacles to discovering other planets. Russian scientists have reproduced a gas mixture that human beings may breathe on the way to Mars and when on the Red Planet.

Staff at the Moscow Biomedical Problems Institute have constructed an experimental capsule and reproduced within it the conditions that might be encountered during a mission to Mars.

The gas inside accounts for only one per cent of the Earth’s atmosphere but there’s plenty of it on Mars - it’s argon.

Mixed in the right proportion with oxygen, it can secure reliable supplies of breathable air.

”We’ve had 60 per cent of argon in the capsule. The rest was oxygen and nitrogen. We’ve been testing how humans would react to that mixture of gases and whether they would still be able to fulfill their duties under the psychological and physical pressure,” said project head, Aleksandr Dyachenko.

The ten-day experiment is now officially complete and volunteers say the gas mixture inside the capsule is totally different from the air outside.

“When the hatchway opened I could feel how different the air was. It actually smells. Can’t be compared with the cocktail of gases we’ve had in there,” said volunteer, Roman Chernogorov.

Two more experiments are being planned - one for 120 days and another, a real-time simulation called Mars 500, will confine volunteers in the capsule for 500 days.

RussiaToday : SciTech : Russia inches towards mission to Mars

Interesting governor. Argon and other inert gases have been used for years in deepwater diving where nitrogen is a problem. But it's also interesting that Russia is willing to go the expenditure of attempting to put men on Mars. What for I'm not really sure but you can be sure that Americans are going to be getting all hot and bothered about it.

I don't think Russia has the ability to launch a mission to Mars, honestly.

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I think to piss Americans off is the only reason why Russia is doing it.

We'll see...
Hey... check this thread - Russia launches second satellite for Galileo navigation system - Political Fever - The Political Debate Forums

Launching a satellite and going to Mars are slightly different.

I know.... Russia has some big plans -

Russia reveals space ambitions
Forty seven years after Yury Gagarin first went into orbit, Russia has unveiled ambitious plans to advance its space programme even further. A new launch pad will be built at Vostochny in the Amur region by 2015 and five years later a manned assembly complex in orbit will build spacecrafts to fly to the Moon and Mars.

READ MORE - RussiaToday : SciTech : Russia reveals space ambitions

They also had big plans to go to the moon as well. Only time will tell. Russia does way to much out of spite instead of doing it for research or the benefit of man kind.

Hmmm, Russia leads us in the space race at every step. Their rocket motors are twice as hefty for lifting payloads, they have the record for longest men in space, splitting the costs of the space station. I think they will do well. Not mentioned however is how are you going to protect these guys from radiation doses of the Van Allen belt and beyond. It might be a one way trip.

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Actually I think it is a state of mind. Russia choses to spend money on space science and we chose to spend our money murdering humans.

__________________
One Tin Soldier Walked Away...............


Vote like your life and your families life depends on it - because it does.

Vote like you want peace & prosparity for America - because the right wants more wars, more casualities, more VA hospitals.

Vote like you want a secured border from terrorists, illegal aliens, drugs, and gun runners - because the right offerred you a few miles of wire fence.