Avi Blizovsky
Alexander Clary and Michael Powell - members of the eighth crew of the space station. The decision will not affect the schedule of the ninth team
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NASA is considering a Russian proposal to double the length of the mission to the International Space Station from six months to a year.
The space station has been manned continuously for the past three and a half years by eight crews who have stayed there for various periods, but never more than seven months. NASA tried to limit the stay on the space station to six months due to health concerns. After a long period of lack of gravity, the muscles get thinner and the bone density decreases.
However, President Bush's proposal to send astronauts to Mars - a mission that would require humans to stay in space for over a year - adds a new dimension to the debate. Before NASA takes a single step toward Mars, it will need to explore long stays in space, says Bill Gerstenmaier, the Gerstenmaier space station program manager. According to him, the proposal has been discussed, but it will not have an effect on the crew scheduled to arrive at the space station in April for a six-month mission. According to Gerstenmeier, Bush's Mars program is only one factor behind the Russian proposal. According to him, there is a second motive. By doubling the length of space missions, the Russian space agency will be able to free up space on Soyuz spacecraft and sell them to space tourists. "This will free up seats for them on the spring flight and give them opportunities to sell more seats," Gerstenmeier said.
Russia has already launched two space tourists in the past at a price of $20 million per seat and it sold an additional seat for the flight in 2005. However, Russia's ability to sell seats on Soyuz spacecraft has been significantly reduced since the Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003 and the freeze on American space shuttle flights since then. The cash-strapped Russian space agency has complained about its battered financial situation since becoming the sole liaison to the space station. However, American law prevents NASA from paying the Russians until it verifies that Russian government agencies are not helping Iran develop long-range missiles.
For the Russians, a long stay in space is not a strange phenomenon. Cosmonaut Valery Poliakov holds the world record when he spent 438 consecutive days aboard Mir in the mid-nineties, and several other Russian cosmonauts have spent over a year in space.
Gerstenmeier said that there is no shortage of volunteers willing to participate in a one-year mission in space. "If it is found that a one-year delay is necessary and this would suit us in that we would receive additional data to assist us in future tasks, I do not believe that we will have a shortage of people who would want to do this." said.
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Yadan International Space Station
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