Following intensive preparations, the UAE Analog Mission#1, part of the Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station (SIRIUS-21), began with the crew entering the NEK ground-based analogue facility in Moscow, Russia, today for the 8-month long project.

From the UAE, analog astronaut Saleh AlAmeri joined the primary crew which included Oleg Blinov, Ekaterina Karyakina and Victoria Kirichenko from Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBMP) along with Ashley Kowalski and William Brown from the US space agency, NASA.

The mission is integral to understanding the effects of isolation and confinement on human psychology, physiology and team dynamics to help prepare for long-duration space exploration.