Five crew members, three men and two women, spent 240 days in conditions simulating the operation of an actual space expedition on a near-lunar orbital station and the moon surface. On July 3, they left the ground-based experimental complex, which has served as a spacecraft simulator, for the first time in eight months of the mission.
Immediately after exiting the complex, crew commander Oleg Blinov informed IMBP Director Oleg Orlov that the program had been fully accomplished, the Sputnik correspondent said.
The SIRIUS-21 (Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station) project that studies the effects of isolation, simulating the moon missions, began on November 4. The multinational crew team initially included six participants, but one of them quit on the 33rd day as she sustained an injury while training.
During eight months of the experiment, the participants simulated entering the earth's orbit, docking with the interplanetary complex, flying to the moon and docking with the orbital station. A part of the crew simulated landing on the moon, using virtual reality technology, and performed so-called exits to the lunar surface.
Apart from the most recent experiment, other SIRIUS projects were carried out in November 2017 and in 2018-2019. Three year-long experiments are planned to be launched in the next few years, starting from the second half of 2023.