If the period of self-isolation caused you a lot of suffering, you probably have not heard about the experiment carried out in the USSR in the late 1960s. However, it is not surprising that they did not hear: he was secret.
In June 2010, the main stage of the Mars-500 experiment started at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP). It was widely covered in the press and on TV. Six volunteers - three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian and a Chinese - spent 1.5 years in a confined space, simulating a flight to Mars. Various emergency situations were worked out, but most importantly, human capabilities, both individual and collective, were tested for strength. The organizers have relied on maximum psychological compatibility of the crew members.
And 43 years earlier, a similar experiment was held at the same institute, only its conditions were much more stringent. The participants were specially selected according to the principle of incompatibility of characters, and even deliberately provoked them into conflicts. How do you like this entry from the declassified archives of the experiment: “Test technician Ulybyshev has the makings of a leader and is preparing a coup inside the pressurized facility. In collusion with the test biologist Bozhko, he seeks to seize power."
Sleeping places for the Marsonauts. Photo: sirius.imbp.ru
Bucket of water for 10 days
Sergey Korolev planned to send a crew to Mars in 1974. The flight, according to his calculations, was to last one year. To find out whether people are in principle able to withstand such a long journey in cramped conditions, a prototype of the living compartment of an interplanetary ship was built on the territory of the IBMP. On November 5, 1967, his door was closed behind three volunteers - doctor German Manovtsev, biologist Andrei Bozhko and engineer Boris Ulybyshev. They told their relatives that they were going on a business trip to the North Pole - for a whole year. The project was top secret.
The "starship" module resembled a room in a Khrushchev building - only 12 squares, half of which was occupied by equipment. In the rest of the space, there are three folding shelves for sleeping, a folding table, a stove, a tiny bathroom, an exercise bike. Instead of a shower, a bucket of water was supposed to last 10 days. By the way, it was extracted from the urine of "marsonauts" - a closed life support system was designed in a pressurized chamber. They drank this water, diluted freeze-dried foods with it, and cooked soup on it. Day and night, the air in the compartment was driven by fans, creating a noise like in the subway. In such an environment, the testers had to live and work for exactly a year, being under the constant supervision of video cameras.
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Manovtsev was appointed commander, who was supposed to monitor the health of colleagues and conduct medical and biological experiments. Boris Ulybyshev was responsible for scientific instruments, biologist Andrei Bozhko was engaged in work in the greenhouse, which was “docked” to a sealed chamber a few months later, and also kept a diary (later it would become the basis of his book “A Year in a“Spaceship”).
Communication with the outside world went through radio communication - the actions of the crew were directed by the mini-MCC. The scientific goal of the experiment was declared as the development of life support systems and preparation for a flight to another planet. But the most difficult were not everyday life, not emergency situations, not round-the-clock noise of fans, not a shortage of water and food, but conflicts between crew members and the struggle for leadership. Mutual enmity sometimes turned into hatred.
Manovtsev pulls himself up on the horizontal bar. Photo: sirius.imbp.ru
Ship riot
Two months later, a riot takes place on board the "spaceship": Ulybyshev and Bozhko ignore German Manovtsev, not paying attention to the orders of the commander. Manovtsev is doubly hard: he has a pregnant wife at home, and he does not even know if he will be informed about the birth of a child.
Then the situation turns upside down: Ulybyshev is given a nutritional supplement in the form of oil capsules (he began to lose weight), and now he is in the minority - the other two crew members openly envy him. The situation is heating up, and at some point the testers are ready to pounce on each other, but this would mean the failure of the experiment and the end of the interplanetary mission. You have to endure. For cosmonauts and polar explorers, this state of mind is called expeditionary frenzy. They say that polar expeditions even just in case provide sets of straitjackets. And the three "Marsonauts" were much worse than the hermits of the icy deserts.
“I remembered the story of a doctor who took part in a polar expedition in Antarctica: they have as much water as they want, cooks cooked food, they exchanged“visits”with penguins. I really wanted to exchange our comfort and coziness for the hardships they experienced during their stay on the ice continent,”wrote Andrei Bozhko.
The testers communicate with each other less and less, each closes in on his work. But (and this became one of the main discoveries of the experiment), when the organizers tighten the conditions even more and introduce an emergency, the crew unites and mobilizes. This happened when the temperature inside the pressurized chamber was raised to 35 ° C, the oxygen supply was reduced, and the concentration of carbon dioxide, on the contrary, was increased by 10 times. In addition, the "marsonauts" were no longer given hot food and the daily supply of water was cut in half. Contrary to expectations, the testers did not quarrel even more, but began to support each other, having introduced such a term - "improve relations." “We agreed to openly and calmly discuss the subject of the quarrel and delve into its essence during friction, while observing one rule: everyone should talk about his own mistakes, criticism of the other was prohibited”,- they recalled later.
On the 121st day, Boris Ulybyshev began hallucinations: it seems to him that at night someone is walking in a sealed chamber. This continues for three nights until Boris decides to turn on the light and sees that Herman Manovtsev is playing the role of a ghost. It turned out that the commander secretly from everyone was taking painkillers, trying to hide a purulent cyst behind the ear and a high temperature. After all, if he had admitted it, the experiment would have been stopped. In the end, doctor Manovtsev undertakes to operate on himself - the medications no longer help him.
But if Ulybyshev's hallucinations turned out to be fiction, then nightmares for "marsonauts" are becoming the norm. “I dreamed that a huge black cat was throwing itself on my chest. I try to tie her up, but she breaks free and rushes at me again. I woke up in a cold sweat, "- this is how Andrei Bozhko recounted another dream.
Harvesting in the greenhouse compartment. Photo: sirius.imbp.ru
Lovestori Andrey Bozhko
Despite the most difficult conditions of the experiment, there were some joyful events. On February 25, 1968, at midnight, a loud radio was suddenly turned on. The management informed the crew commander that he had a daughter. True, he will be able to see his wife and child only after 8 months. The only one of the testers who manages to lead a personal life is Andrey Bozhko. And his case is similar to a real love story.
On January 22, a greenhouse was docked to the sealed chamber. The crew was very happy: firstly, this is an additional space where you can take 6 more steps or hide from other participants for a while. Secondly, now the "marsonauts" will have at least some vitamins, otherwise they have already begun to notice signs of scurvy. Around the same time, a new operator on duty appeared at the command post. "Good morning, guys!" - she woke them up in a pleasant voice. It seemed to Andrei Bozhko that it was the voice of an angel. He began to think about how to attract the attention of the girl Violetta, who can only be seen by chance, through the window curtain that was not fully closed.
The enamored "marsonaut" writes her a letter and through the airlock of the greenhouse, in which he operates as a biologist, transfers it, burying it in the ground. The postman is a familiar engineer "from the other side", who helps Bozhko in experiments with plants. After agonizing expectations (will he answer or not? What if the letter ends up in the wrong hands? And if it reaches the authorities?) Andrei receives a response from Violetta, and they start to correspond.
The biologist's secret correspondence with the operator of the command post lasts six months - the girl is waiting for the tester's return, as if from a real space flight. “I'm happy,” she says many years later. - The Lord has rewarded me for something. We have wonderful sons, already doctors of science."
The wedding took place shortly after the completion of the experiment. Toasts sounded at the table: "To the conquest of Mars!" And the book by Andrey Bozhko "A Year in the" Starship ", written jointly with Violetta Gorodinskaya, is still being studied during the organization of space missions.
The scientific results of the top-secret experiment are used to make recommendations to orbital crews. They help to minimize conflict situations, organize the cosmonauts' leisure time, and make their life more comfortable. When the time comes to fly to Mars, the experience of Soviet testers, whose names, unlike the names of Gagarin and Leonov, are not known to many people, will be remembered more than once. There is no doubt about it.