SIRIUS-23 experiment researcher talks about the difficulties of isolation

A year in isolation with the same people is hard. Ksenia Shishenina, a researcher of the SIRIUS-23 experiment, told about it on November 21.

"Of course, it is hard, we all remember the times of COVID-19, when people stayed with their relatives, loved ones for four months in a closed space, it was hard. And here, it turns out, we knew each other before the experiment, we saw each other, but somehow we had to study each other deeply inside, to put up with something, to talk," she said.

According to her, the project participants talked a lot with each other to understand why someone acts this way or that way.

Earlier, on November 14, the year-long experiment SIRIUS-23, simulating a flight to the Moon, was successfully completed and its participants came out of isolation. It took place at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. In the project, six volunteers spent a year in isolation from the outside world.

Participants of the SIRIUS-23 experiment on the eve of its completion exclusively shared their impressions of the project with Izvestia. They told about the most difficult experiments and the trials they had to go through during the research work.

Before that, on November 13, Arslan Niyazov, a researcher of the project, a doctor in aviation and space medicine of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the most difficult for the participants of the experiment were experiments on sleep deprivation, when the crew members were forbidden to sleep for 36 hours.

He also noted that during the experiment crew members showed signs of burnout, decreased memory, attention and other cognitive functions. Doctors observed a decrease in mood and general debility. Conflict situations could potentially arise.