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SANTIAGO OF CHILE, special for UNO INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE. - With 33 miners trapped deep underground, Chile is seeking advice from NASA on how to keep the miners mentally and physically fit as they wait for a complicated rescue mission that could take months to complete.
"We received a request from the Chilean government about advice related to our life science research," John Yembrick, a NASA spokesman, told SPACE.com.
NASA, which routinely trains astronauts to cope with the isolation of months-long International Space Station missions, is providing survival tips to the miners, who could be trapped 2,300 feet (700 meters) below the Earth's surface for up to four months, according to press reports.
NASA officials are currently in a meeting to discuss further details.
Trapped Chile miners survived 18 days underground on pieces of tuna and milk
Thirty three miners trapped more than 2,300ft underground in Chile for the past 18 days have survived on two mouthfuls of tuna and half a glass of milk every 48 hours.
The men, who are caught in a 500 sq ft passage by a rock collapse in the San Jose gold and copper mine, remain in good spirits after alerting the world to their survival at the weekend by passing a note through a shaft.
Amid the celebrations that have gripped Chile, experts warned the real challenge for the trapped men would be to maintain sanity during the four months it could take to build an underground escape tunnel.
After making contact with rescuers late on Monday, the miners were not told it could take until Christmas to be freed.
Officials, who hugged and cried when they learned they were alive, have warned the world that getting them out would be a long and technically complex operation in what some observers described as a "human odyssey".
Using plastic supply tubes called "doves", workers started delivering glucose, hydration gel, oxygen and medications to the miners trapped down the mine near the city of Copiapó, 530 miles north of Santiago.
"We are well. We're waiting to be rescued,” said Luis Urzua, the mine’s shift leader as the trapped miners applauded, cheered, shouted "Viva Chile" and sang the country's national anthem.
Communicating an intercom line lowered through a three-inch diameter bore hole, the miners told how they had survived on rations of two mouthfuls of tuna fish and half a cup of milk every two days.
The food had been stored in an emergency shelter.
"They had two little spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk and a biscuit every 48 hours," said Dr Sergio Aguila, who was part of the rescue team.
He said they were in good health and spirits and while they had water they were hungry.
A camera lowered down the borehole showed the miners sweaty and shirtless in the shelter, where temperatures reach 97F (36C), but waving and in apparently good condition.
"They asked for food, and toothbrushes and something for their eyes," said Laurence Golborne, the Mining Minister.
But Andres Sougarret, the chief engineer, admitted he had not told the miners how long the operation would take.
"The umbilical cord is ready," he said.
"Now comes the engineering design, the topography, and then begins the work of drilling.
He said rescuers were organising the families into small groups to make their talks as orderly as possible.
He had earlier warned it would take 120 days to drill a shaft wide enough for the miners to be pulled up one by one.
Work had already started on two smaller shafts, he said, one to ensure ventilation and one to maintain communications along the shaft 2.3 miles from the mine entrance.
Paula Newman, a doctor in charge of monitoring the miners' health, said rescuers had already sent down a glucose solution and medication to prevent ulcers.
She said they should wait another day before taking solid foods.
"They are all in perfect health, and none are traumatised," Dr Newman said.
"Their complaints are much less than we could have expected."
She said they were being asked to answer questions about their medical histories, when they last ate and bathed and who their leaders were to get a more precise picture of the group.
Jaime Manalich, the health minister, said it was important to keep the miners in good spirits.
"We need to urgently establish what psychological situation they are in. They need to understand what we know up here at the surface: that it will take many weeks for them to reach the light," he said.
Engineers had earlier worked through the night to reinforce the six-inch-wide borehole that broke through to the miners' refuge on Sunday.
Using a long hose, they coated the walls with a metallic gel to decrease the risk of more rock falls in the unstable mine and make it easier to pass material in capsules.
The first capsules — which take about an hour to descend from the surface — included water and food in the form of a high-energy glucose gel for the miners, who have almost certainly lost significant weight since being trapped with limited food supplies on Aug 5.
When the drill broke through the solid rock to reach the emergency refuge, the trapped men tied two notes to the end of a probe that rescuers pulled to the surface, announcing in big red letters: "All 33 of us are fine in the shelter".
Brandishing the letter, President Sebastian Pinera stood outside the mine and declared: "Today all of Chile is crying with excitement and joy."
A wave of euphoria has swept Chile after the announcement was made.
Mario Gomez, 63, the oldest of the trapped men, said in a letter sent up the shaft to his wife that the group was braced for a long wait.
"Even if we have to wait months to communicate, I want to tell everyone that I'm good and we'll surely come out OK," he wrote.
Davitt McAteer, an American mine safety expert, said the group should remain physically well over the months ahead but that efforts would have to be put in place to protect their mental state.
"The health risks in a copper and gold mine are pretty small if you have air, food and water," he said.
"There is a psychological pattern there. They've established communication with the guys; there are people who can talk them through that."
Compania Minera San Esteban Primera, the private operator that owns the mine, has suffered a series of incidents in which 16 workers have been killed in recent years.
Chile is the world's leading producer of copper and is also a major producer of gold.
Last year, three workers survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China. Few other rescues have taken more than two weeks.
"Right now, we're still waiting to find out what specific questions they have for us, and how best we can assist," Yembrick said.
The workers have already survived 17 days underground, after the small gold and copper mine in the northern Chile collapsed on Aug. 5.
Rescuers found the miners alive on Sunday, and were able to dig a narrow, six-inch tunnel to reach them, the Houston Chronicle newspaper reported. But, it could take another four months to complete the rescue, which involves drilling a 2-foot (0.6-meter) wide tunnel through 2,200 feet (670 meters) of solid rock.
The trapped miners have been able to live so far off of limited food and water supplies, in a large, living room-size area. A physician on the rescue team said that the miners ate two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk and a biscuit every 48 hours, according to the Houston Chronicle.
As the miners prepare to face mounting challenges, NASA may be able to suggest ways for them to cope with the tough physical and psychological conditions, in addition to ways of maintaining positive morale.
"Psychologically speaking we have to try to keep them on the right track and not give them false hope that it will be a short rescue," the Reuters news agency quoted Chile's Mining Minister Laurence Golborne as saying.
Physicians have recommended that the miners do regular exercises to maintain a level of fitness. This will prevent muscle atrophy as they await their extraction from the collapsed mine, Reuters reported.