Energia, IBMP Sign Agreement on Biomedical Space Experiments

MOSCOW (RSC Energia PR) — On Tuesday, January 26, 2016, RSC Energia will be visited by a delegation from the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation “Institute for Biomedical Problems” (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. During the visit the President of RSC Energia Vladimir Solntsev and IBMP Director Oleg Orlov are to sign a strategic partnership agreement.

“The key areas of cooperation between RSC Energia and IBMP are biomedical research and experiments in the ISS Russian Segment, as well as work aimed at forming a biomedical support system for the new-generation Crew Transportation Spacecraft (CTS) “Federatsia” (“Federation”), carrying out the lunar program and other advanced space exploration projects”, – says the document.

The challenges that are to be jointly addressed include establishing a system for medical selection and evaluation of the crew, assuring habitability and ergonomics of manned space hardware, joint experiments under the RSC Energia program with participation of the Corporation’s cosmonauts-testers.

The IMBP delegation will include participants in the isolation experiment Luna-2015, which was conducted at IMBP at the end of 2015. The guests will be shown the ergonomics development facility and the mockups of the New-Generation Crew Transportation Spacecraft (NG CTS) “Federatsia” (“Federation”), which will be used in a Russian mission to the Moon. In their turn, RSC Energia specialists will get acquainted with the results of the experimental part of the program “Luna-2015” for further coordination of the joint work – ranging from the cosmonaut selection to development of a system for biomedical support of the future lunar mission.

The isolation experiment Luna-2015 was conducted at IMBP during a period of October 28 through November 6, 2015. A crew of six girls spent nine days in a ground experimental facility simulating a mission to the Moon. In this way the scientists were studying the mechanisms of the female body adaptation to the condition of isolation in a pressurized cabin and obtained data on the crew health status using complete analogues of scientific instruments available onboard the ISS.

Joint Stock Company RSC Energia is the leader in the rocket and space industry, and the prime contractor for manned space systems. The Corporation conducts work on the development of unmanned space and rocket systems (launch vehicles and orbital transfer vehicles), and high-technology systems for various non-space applications. Since August 2014, the Corporation is headed by Vladimir Solntsev.