航天科学家利用新冠禁足期预演火星探测
French space scientists are using the COVID-19 lockdown as a dry run for what it will be like to be cooped up inside a space craft on a mission to Mars.
The guinea pigs in the experiment are 60 students who are confined to their dormitory rooms in the southern city of Toulouse - not far removed from the kind of conditions they might experience on a long space mission.
When the French government imposed movement restrictions to curb the spread of the virus， space researcher Stephanie Lizy-Destrez decided to make the most of a bad situation， and signed up the student volunteers.
It's not an exact simulation of space flight: tasks such as picking up samples from a planet's surface using a lunar rover do not feature， and the students can break off from their virtual space journey for a daily trip outside.
Instead， they conduct computer-based tasks such as memory tests and mental agility tests. They keep a daily journal， and every five days have to complete a questionnaire.
The students have a different set of motivations to real astronauts， said Lizy-Destrez， Associate Professor of Space Systems Engineering at ISAE-SUPAERO.
“In the case of the participants in the experiment on campus， it's a confinement which was imposed on them.” she said.
But the tight living quarters - students are in rooms that measure 12 square metres （130 square feet） - and the limits on what people can do are similar to conditions people might encounter in space.
So too are the adverse psychological effects this can have on people， which scientists are keen to better understand before sending astronauts on a mission to Mars that could last several months.
Tom Lawson， a masters student in aerospace engineering who is participating in the programme， described the effects.
“A lot of the students are finding it extremely difficult to keep up with their work and keep up with what they have to do.” Lawson said.