Aiming to experience what life is like in a space station, four Chinese students have volunteered to lock themselves in a space station simulator for 200 days. The amazing thing about the simulator is that everything inside it will be recycled including what most would consider disgusting such as sweat, urine, oxygen, carbon-di-oxide, etc. The four students who have volunteered for the experiment are from the Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics. The experiment has already begun with students entering the space station simulator yesterday. They will have to sustain themselves inside the simulator for the next 200 days without any type of external help.
The space station simulator has been intelligently designed and it has everything that humans might need to survive. The experiment will help researchers understand the effects of long-term isolation on humans. This is being considered a major step, as China aims to establish colonies on the moon and planets such as Mars. Speaking about the simulator, Liu Hong, a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the chief architect of the project said, “We’ve designed it so the oxygen is exactly enough to satisfy the humans, the animals, and the organisms that break down the waste materials.”