UNDERGROUND ISOLATION CHAMBER 2010-2012
PROJECT FOR THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY AND THE CENTRE D'ÉTUDE DE L'ENERGIE NUCLÉAIRE (SCK-CEN), BELGIUM
\
In 2007, SCK-CEN, the national nuclear agency in Belgium, approached ESA with a plan to convert an underground tunnel in Mol, Belgium into a chamber for simulating long space missions of six-person crews to test human responses to isolation and confinement. This design for a chamber - named HADES by ESA - would provide Europe with a long-duration spaceflight simulator for the first time. The HADES tunnel (photo below left) was 200 metres under-
ground and originally built by SCK-CEN for geological feasibility studies on the underground storage of radioactive nuclear waste. The tunnel had never
been used for this purpose and Belgium had since abandoned its nuclear energy programme. The isolation chamber (image right) was designed to accommodate six-person teams for periods of 100-150 days. Scientists and doctors would observe their behaviour under various conditions of stress. SCK-CEN proposed a tunnel end gallery for the chamber site but the single entry/exit point without an escape raised emergency evacuation concerns and there was minimal volume available for life support systems of which three versions - open, partly open and closed - were to be installed for test purposes. Despite these
challenges, a design emerged that was just large enough to contain the necessary accommodation and equipment. Small elevator shafts at each end of the tunnel provided the only means of delivery for all the chamber's construction elements.
However, unresolved concerns with the lack of an alternative means of escape in
an emergency halted the project.
