A year in isolation: 366-day mock moon mission wraps up in Russia

The six crewmembers of the SIRIUS-23 ended their 366-day mock moon mission on Nov. 14, 2024.

On Nov. 14, 2024, the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences marked the successful completion of SIRIUS-23, a year-long biomedical isolation experiment simulating the conditions of deep-space travel and lunar surface operations.

For 366 days, a crew of six analog astronauts lived and worked in a sealed environment, a meticulously controlled Earth-based stand-in for interplanetary missions of the future.