Health officials in Chile have reportedly asked Nasa for advice on how to keep the miners sane and healthy for the four months it is likely to take to rescue them. The cramped conditions are similar to those faced by astronauts on the International Space Station.

In Russia, a group of astronauts was recently sealed into a container as part of a simulation of a round trip to Mars. For 520 days, they will perform flight tasks and experiments in the first study of its kind looking at the psychological and physical stresses involved in close confinement for long periods.

But is there anything that previous astronaut experience can teach the Chileans? With no natural light, the miners have no natural cues for their circadian rhythm. "Light and dark cycles, food and temperature are all going to be nonexistent or out of kilter down there," says Kevin Fong, lecturer in space medicine at University College London. Regular mealtimes and time-specific tasks will be required to keep the miners sleeping, engaged and resting properly.

The survival of the group will rest, as it does with astronauts, on their individual resilience. "I can't imagine you do that job if you're the kind of person who will wig out at the first day of I'm a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here," says Fong.

The relatively large group of 33 men will help. "There's more personal variation and you have less opportunity to get pissed off with any one person," says Fong. "But then they're in a very small space and habitation and health becomes a problem because of sanitation issues.

"It's going to be super tough. The only redeeming feature is that these people are already resilient personality types who may have a better than average chance of putting up with it."