Volunteer for the Mars Station's Dry Run

cfx666 writes "The Mars Society is seeking seven volunteers to participate as members of the crew of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) during an extended simulation of human Mars exploration operations on Devon Island (May 1 through August 31, 2007). As currently planned, the crew will consist of four individuals chosen primarily for their skills as field scientists in areas including geology, geochemistry, microbiology, biochemistry, and paleontology. Two additional crew members will be chosen primarily for their skills in engineering areas. Ability of crew members to support both roles is considered a strong plus."

Comments

What target?

[andrewman327]

I wonder what extremely skilled individuals have an entire year to spare. It could be an interesting sabatical for a university professor but most people who are physically fit enough for such a mission probably have other jobs and families and such to attend to.

I also wonder what (if any) medical requirements they will have for the pretend crew. On the space shuttle one of the astronauts has to have an advanced medical license and they carry a first aid kit that would probably make your local ambulance company drool (I'm a rookie EMT so I'm very interested in this aspect).

This reminds me of the movie (Rocket Man?) where they had isolation testing on the ground and the main charector almost drove everyone else to madness by singing loudly and off key.

Selection will be easy at first.

[Rob T Firefly]

Things will all go smoothly until Matthew McConaughey demands to know whether the candidates believe in God.

Biosphere 2 Redux?

[ToxikFetus]

Wasn't this already tried in 1991? And wasn't the 1996 followup only slightly less disasterous?

Been done already.

[krell]

"There was a UK reality show based around a bunch of people thinking they were off in to space."

There was a wildly popular reality show similar to this that ran on American TV in the late 1960s.

Biochemist, Microbiologist?

[Down_in_the_Park]

It is a Mars exploration, so far there isn't any life found, may be there was some several million years ago, but as a biologist I don't see any reason for any biologist be it molecular-, micro-, or Neurobiologist.

Certainly a psychologist would be more helpful...

Paleontology?

[aapold]

Paleontology? What isn't NASA telling us?

I mean I know its not just the study of fossils, but still... given what we know this could well be someone with nothing to study up there.

Talk about a proverbial 5th (or 7th as the case may be) wheel on a team. I'm guessing this'd be the prime candidate to have some other duties...

Re:Paleontology?

[TheRaven64]

My guess is that they want a geologist with palaeontology experience. That way, when they find unusual patterns in the rocks they have someone who can say with confidence whether they are fossils or not, rather than having someone proclaiming that they've found fossils on Mars that later turn out to be something far less interesting.

Crap, I thought they wanted REAL volunteers!

[DigitalRaptor]

I thought they were looking for people willing to take a one-way trip to Mars for the good of exploration and humanity.

We could learn a whole lot by sending one person to mars, on a one-way trip, with supplies for 90 days or whatever.

The person would never be coming back, and would know that in advance, but I think you'd get people volunteering, even those terminally ill but still functional enough to survive.

P.S. I'm not volunteering.

Re:Crap, I thought they wanted REAL volunteers!

[Lurker2288]

I remember reading (I think it was in Michael Collins' book on Mars exploration) that back in the 70s, some folks in NASA talked about what they called the 'poor bastard' Mars exploration plan, in which a single man is landed on Mars with as many supplies as they can squeeze into the capsule with him, and he does as much science as he can before he runs out. Obviously there'd be almost no chance of resupply or rescue, hence making him the "poor bastard." There were some volunteers, but for obvious reasons NASA didn't want people talking about this in public.

Whose the seventh?

[ehud42]

They need seven volunteers.... 4 science specialists and 2 engineers... and??? someone with a red shirt?

Re:Whose the seventh?

[Anonymous Coward]

"In addition to the six person Mars exploration crew, one field support person will also participate in the expedition in an out of simulation role. This person should have excellent field mechanic and wilderness skills."