Four Chinese students spent an entire two hundred days pretending to be on the moon. Although China remains years and years away from taking off on a moon mission, they are still thinking ahead and planning for a rather long-term stay. This recently conducted experiment took four students who volunteered to stay in a sealed form of a lunar lab located in Beijing for two hundred days. The goal is this study was to examine what psychological effects living on the moon had on the human mind, and see what would happen if they were to really live on the Moon.  This experiment was apart of a program that aims to advance and realize the idea of Moon colonization.

The living space that the four volunteers were placed in was 160 square meters and was called the ”Yuegong-1” as well as the Lunar Palace.  The lab was completely closed off from anything outside of it and really created a very similar model to the same sort of isolation that humans would go through if they were to live on the moon.  The chief designer of the module, Liu Hong has explained to the public that the experience was a no small challenge for the psychological well being of the four student volunteers, as well as for the system. However she expresses that they were able to withstand the difficult test.

Even throughout three blackouts that occurred,  the crew of student volunteers, consisting of two women and two men stayed tough despite these uncomfortable experiences. The first group of students that were set to be apart of the experiment only stayed for sixty days. Only.  Then were then replaced by a group of another four students who stayed in the lunar lab for two hundred days. The plan now is for the first group that had stayed for sixty days is to return to the lunar lab for another one hundred and five days.

The very first time this experiment took place was in 2014. The students in the module used a special bio-fermentation treatment process in order to deal with waste byproducts. With this, they were able to grow various vegetables and crops for experimentation. The module had different designated spaces for each specific experiment, and even had specific living and sleeping areas, even spaces for raising animals.

And although China as mentioned has no plans to make a trip to the moon anytime soon, experiments such as these have been created in order to assist scientists in predicting which obstacles humans would be presented with if they were to try to live on the moon for a long-term period of time.

China is not alone in their interest in a lunar base experimental project. Elon Musk expresses that the development of a lunar base is something that be a top priority for humanity. The European Space Agency has already announced to the public that they have solid plans to create a base by the year 2030. Russia has further shared their plans to even create a permanent base on the Moon.

So while you may have always been told that Mars was the coolest place to be that’s out of this world, Buzz Aldrin, an astronaut who has first hand experience on the Moon himself has shared that he believes that there are possibilities for life off of planet Earth.  In any case, the recent experiments conducted by China can significantly assist in gaining a better understanding of how space missions can best be undertaken.