Posted on 10/28/2015 3:07:38 PM PDT by LibWhacker
MOSCOW (AFP) - Six Russian women on Wednesday clambered into a mock spaceship to begin a unique experiment testing how an all-female crew would interact on a trip to the Moon and back.
For eight days, the female volunteers will live inside a wood-panelled suite of rooms at Moscow's Institute of Biomedical Problems, renowned for its wacky research into the psychological and physical effects of space travel.
The institute in 2010 locked six male international volunteers in an isolation experiment lasting 520 days, to simulate a flight to Mars and back.
"Such a crew is taking part for the first time in a simulation experiment. It's interesting for us to see what is special about the way a female crew communicates," said Sergei Ponomaryov, the experiment's supervisor.
"It will be particularly interesting in terms of psychology," said the institute's director Igor Ushakov.
"I'd like to wish you a lack of conflicts, even though they say that in one kitchen, two housewives find it hard to live together," he added.
The volunteers include scientific researchers, a doctor and a psychologist.
The test period simulates a flight to the Moon and back, with the women carrying out 10 experiments covering psychology and human biology.
Russia sent the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963 but has lagged behind since. Last year it sent its fourth female cosmonaut into space, Yelena Serova.
Serova complained of a flurry of media interest in how she would wash her hair aboard the International Space Station, pointing out that male cosmonauts did not face the same line of questioning.
Ponomaryov called the latest experiment an effort to make up for lost time.
"There's never been an all-female crew on the ISS. We consider the future of space belongs equally to men and women and unfortunately we need to catch up a bit after a period when unfortunately there haven't been too many women in space."
- 'Beautiful without makeup' -
Despite the mission being presented as a giant step for gender equality, the women -- who wore red jumpsuits -- found themselves fielding questions at a press conference about how they would cope without men or makeup for eight days.
"We are very beautiful without makeup," parried participant Darya Komissarova.
Her colleague Anna Kussmaul was more direct: "We are doing work. When you're doing your work, you don't think about men and women."
Like their counterparts on the International Space Station the women will have no shower, washing with wet wipes instead.
They plan to spend their 1 1/2 hours per day of free time watching films, reading and playing board games.
Team leader Yelena Luchnitskaya said she expected the women to deal with any conflict.
"I'm sure we all have the education, personal qualities and the upbringing, at the end of the day," she said.
"So far I can't imagine what would rattle us."
Not me. I wouldn’t last two seconds locked up with a lib!
I had three young women working for me. What a mess at certain times of the month. They were all in sync. Yikes!!
Gary Anderson’s ITC 1972 U.F.O. TV series Ping!
Those space babe’s were Hot ~
What goes in da spaceship stays in da spaceship.
CAT FIGHT !!!!!
I noticed theyre only doing an eight-day study on the women.
But how many times would they have to stop for directions.....
Lol, it is inevitable, and once it happens it is going to be more than a little unpleasant.
No purple wigs please.
No,no, maybe, no, HELL NO, no...
Cosmonettes. Keep it as short as possible. :)
This reads like the beginning of a new "Our Man Flint" movie.
Hmmmmmm, I say 2 out of 6 that I would tap.
The name is “BOND”, “JAMES BOND”. (Hint: Moonraker). I hated it when Corrine Clery got killed. She was a “looker”.
Admin removed my pix of Jesus eating popcorn...BUT girls with bullet boobs can stay. Go figger!
*Rolleyes*
Hey girls, please photograph an Apollo landing site so that the morons can sleep.
It would seem that a cosmonaut crew would be higher quality people than some run of the mill cubicle drones.
Also, hopefully at least a couple would have above average mechanical aptitude. Think Buzz Aldrin using a pencil to get off the Moon or the Apollo 13 mission.
There are several solutions for that issue:
* Require the women to have passed menopause to be on the program. Not photogenic, but more hygienic.
* Require them all to use Norplant or another injectible contraceptive that suppresses the menstrual cycle.
* Require all women considering the space program to have has a hysterectomy.
While you’re at it, require anyone wanting long term space travel to be sterilized to avoid even a risk of accidental pregnancy or mutated offspring later, along with requiring the appendix to be out so that can’t need to come out off world.
What movie is that from?
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