Tech & Sci
16:24, 27-Jan-2018
Chinese students stay in contained cabin for 200 days, setting world record
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Two male and two female volunteers spent 200 days in a simulated space lab in Beijing, setting a world record for the longest stay in a self-contained "cabin."
The biomedicine students from Beihang University, the second group of volunteers staying in Yuegong-1, also known as Lunar Palace 1, completed the second phase of its 365-day on-ground experiment Friday.
The first group of volunteers, who had previously stayed in the cabin for 60 days, re-entered the cabin Friday to replace the second group, starting the third and final phase which will last 105 days.
The experiment was designed to see how the Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS), in which animals, plants and microorganisms co-exist, works in a lunar environment, as well as the physical and mental conditions of humans in such an environment.
Water and food can be recycled within the system, creating an Earth-like environment.
A successful 105-day trial was conducted in 2014.
Liu Hong, chief designer of Yuegong-1. /CGTN Photo
Liu Hong, chief designer of Yuegong-1. /CGTN Photo
Liu Hong, chief designer of Yuegong-1, said the purpose of the new program was to test the stability of the BLSS when "astronauts" take turns living in the cabin.
"For a bioregenerative life support system, our students have lived in it for 200 days, which breaks the previous record of 180 days in the world. The system does not only sustain people physically, but also psychologically. Nobody in the cabin has experienced big psychological problems, which proves the system's merits," Liu said.
Currently, the third stage of the experiment has started. In order to put the stability of the system under rigorous tests, the design team has also deliberately created problems of certain parts of the whole system to see how the system and the students will cope.
The experiment started on May 10, 2017, and is scheduled to complete in May 2018. Experts expect the experiment to provide important data in the studies of long habitation on another planet.
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