Posted by
michael
on from the NASA-will-fake-this-one-too dept.
nerdygeek writes "According to this article from the BBC, NASA chief Daniel Goldin has predicted there will be astronauts on Mars by 2020. We've heard things like this before, but not as strongly worded, especially when he speaks of robots and people heading for other stars."
The biggest problem I forsee is the astronauts psycology. It'll be, basically, a 9 month trip in something a little less comfortable than a school bus:
Probably not as much room as a school bus.
And seeing the same people, in close proximity, every morning/afternoon/evening/night for the next 9 months with very little privacy.
The constant horror that a small accident means instant death every single day.
Plus the trip to Mars is long, drawn out, and boring (not exactly sure how long it'll take. Like 2-months?) then the commander will need to be completely focused to land. Mir had a cosmonaut that was up for several weeks and couldn't dock an unmanned satelite to Mir (the cause was most likely that he was just bored for so long he lost his focus)
They'll need to stock up on coffee and try not to kill themselves, or let the environment get to them. Easy task, right? I think not!
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- Probably not as much room as a school bus.
- And seeing the same people, in close proximity, every morning/afternoon/evening/night for the next 9 months with very little privacy.
- The constant horror that a small accident means instant death every single day.
- Plus the trip to Mars is long, drawn out, and boring (not exactly sure how long it'll take. Like 2-months?) then the commander will need to be completely focused to land. Mir had a cosmonaut that was up for several weeks and couldn't dock an unmanned satelite to Mir (the cause was most likely that he was just bored for so long he lost his focus)
They'll need to stock up on coffee and try not to kill themselves, or let the environment get to them. Easy task, right? I think not!Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!