Slashdot Mirror
Volunteers Simulate Mission To Mars
Hugh Pickens writes "Six volunteers have climbed into a small metal capsule in Moscow as part of a three-month experiment meant to simulate a voyage to Mars. The crew — a German engineer, a French airline pilot, and four Russians — will spend the next 105 days living in a minimally furnished facility erected in a hangar on the outskirts of the Russian capital. The German said, 'I think we are going to learn a lot about each other.' A cosmonaut-in-training who will lead the mission was quoted: 'On the inside, we will have a lack of incoming information, so it's the science of sensory deprivation.' A similar experiment in Moscow virtually collapsed when a multinational team of men and women were allowed to drink alcohol on the eve of the millennium, and simmering tensions between Russian and non-Russian volunteers exploded in a fight for the affections of a female Canadian scientist. Only men are involved this time, and no alcohol. Scientists will keep a constant vigil on the team via cameras erected in each of the facility's three modules. Those who survive more than 100 days will earn a $20,000 reward. The current project is a warm-up for a much more ambitious experiment, scheduled for December, which will see another group of volunteers spending over 500 days in the same conditions. With current technology it is estimated that a return trip to Mars will take at least 18 months." The amazing thing is that 5,600 people applied to be part of the experiment.
So... $20,000/100 Days = $200 dollars, day. $200/24 hours = $8.33/hour. Some people really need to do the math before going "OMG THATS A GREAT REWARD" >> Kudos to those running the experiment. Cheap labor is great.
Warning: Corny karma killing post above.
Of all the planets, Uranus is now looking especially attractive.
Such comfort is a far cry from experiments staged in Russia during the Soviet era. During one project in the 1970s, a group of volunteers was strapped to gurneys, tilted at an angle so their heads were 45 degrees below their feet, for six months, as part of a study on the impact of weightlessness on the human body. The volunteers were fed through tubes placed near their mouths.
Well, that's one experiment I sure as hell wouldn't volunteer for.
I wonder if the Soviet "volunteers" were voluntold. Or if they were only told that they were volunteering for a space exploration experiment, not the details. Heh.
It's probably closer to $12.5 an hour if you don't count their sleeping time.
Hell, lock me in there, give me a laptop, and let me work on my PC game masterpiece for 100 days without interruption!
A $20,000 reward for anyone who can handle over 100 days of cramped conditions with other humans, no sex or booze, and lack if information from the rest of the world?
And they only give released prisoners a mere $200.
Come on, at least divide by the awake hours. I would gladly sleep in a capsule for $64 a night. I'll even shower and eat breakfast there for a few extra bucks.
They earn more per day than an ordinary minimum waged Russian do for a month. And in my country where I could consider myself a middle class person (still single), they earn more in 100 days than I could possibly earn in a year.
Sooo not worth it... $20,000/100 days = $73,000/year The volunteers consist of two cosmonauts, one therapist, one pilot, one engineer, and two doctors. Any one of those people could make the same amount of money over the same period of time just working in their chosen profession. I can see it now, "Hi there, we want to lock you in a tiny metal box for 105 days. If you stay the whole time we will give you less money than you would have made staying at your old job..." Where can I sign up?
A Russian, a German, and a Frenchman in an enclosed space for 3 months. Sure. I'd watch that. You'll know they've run out of ideas after someone invades Poland, though.
"The crew...will spend the next 105 days living in a minimally furnished facility erected in a hanger..."
Does that remind anyone else of their first semester in college?
They won't experience the lack of gravity that actual astronauts would experience.
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
What poor math!
20,000/100 Days = $200 dollars, day.
Yeah, for a 7 day work week
$200/24 hours = $8.33/hour
A 24 hour work day. Yeah!
Have you looked at unemployment numbers lately? Having a guaranteed steady job for over 3 months, making $8.33 per hour even while you're sleeping... Not so bad.
Or they make $73,000 a year. Not amazing money in some places, but a fortune in others. Also it is in a lump sum after no expenses.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The amazing thing is that 5,600 people applied to be part of the experiment.
I know it's not much to work with, but people won't apply if they don't know about it. They could have gotten an easy 1K more just by posting here.
Both of which are. They're not able to leave, from what I understand. therefore, 24 hour work day, 7 days a week.
Warning: Corny karma killing post above.
that may be true for rural Russia, but I assure you that residents of Moscow make more than $200/month.
I'm a scientist in NL and 73000 US$ is about 1.25 times as much as I earn now.
-- Cheers!
So, like a coathanger, or what? Or, did you mean an airplane hangar [wikipedia.org]?
For someone going as "KDAWSON sucks" I expected more biting criticism than pointing out a typo.
I would haggle that my payment be that I go on the real trip if I do well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(TV_series)
No women, eh? They want to explore the dynamics of long-term space flights, but they couldn't handle their alcohol last time, and now they've decided it's easier just to keep it all-male. Bah -- they're missing the whole point of testing this stuff. There will undoubtedly be women on Mars flights, so shouldn't they try to work it out?
I think Russia's sexism is showing.
Considering the per capita GDP of Russia is $15,800 (meaning the average person makes less than that), I am surprised they didn't have MORE people volunteering. There must have been a lack of advertising or something.
Qxe4
"will spend the next 105 days living in a minimally furnished facility erected in a hanger on the outskirts of the Russian capital"
I'm wondering if this is the British spelling or did the Telegraph make a mistake?
A German engineer, a French airline pilot, and four Russians walk into a bar. The bartender says: ...
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
"Working in such conditions requires that a person be able to check himself, evaluate his condition in relation to the crew and in relation to mission control and be able to correct himself," said Boris V. Marukov, the experiment's director and a former crew member on the International Space Station."
Translating Ice Cube lyrics from Russian is terribly complicated.
Yeah, but you're missing something here.
After I'm done, I can add 'NASA Mars Expedition Lab-Rat/Test-Monkey' to my resume!
Now that's cool!
Plus, I get $20,000 USD to move out of Mom's basement for three months...maybe she will get some of my laundry done while I'm gone!
On the other hand, she will expect me to get a job when I get back. :-(
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Why is this effort treated as being difficult? Pack three indie game developers in a capsule for 100 days. They'll hardly talk with each other, and by the end of the trip, they'll complain to mission control they only just got their compilers working for their games' scripting languages!
Sleep is not work whether you are lying in a king size bed or in a hypermarketed king size coffin.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
They should be able to have communications -- just with ever-increasing latency simulating speed-of-light propagation delays on an actual voyage. At some point, bandwidth may fall off, and there will be the occasional bit of "space weather" to liven things up. It's not like a trip to Mars means instant cutoff from the world, but realtime communications would become problematic fairly quickly, and impractical not long after. Their communications should start looking more and more like e-mail every day.
In an actual Mars mission, their communications will degrade in a fairly predictable manner (aside from space weather). Why not factor that into the experiment?
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
With a summary like that, who needs to RTFA?
You should see what submariners get paid. Sounds about the same lifestyle-wise, aside from the addition of little things like knowing you're cruising around the under the ocean with nuclear ballistic missiles.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
'A Russian, a German, and a Frenchman' enter a Mars Bar...
1. Oh, wait, this is going to get digusting.
2. ????
3. Let's just skip to the punch line.[NSFW}
My vote would be for the Frog to be goatse'd.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Send ex-cons to Mars.... A piece of cake for them.
To run this story without a photo of the "female Canadian scientist". An outrage, indeed.
Google is my next stop...
Good point, especially for the Russian crew members.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
$20,000/100 Days = $200 dollars, day.
Which is about $6,000/month. Nod bad in Russia where the average monthly salary, according to Wikipedia, is $640.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
So... $20,000/100 Days = $200 dollars, day. $200/24 hours = $8.33/hour. Some people really need to do the math before going "OMG THATS A GREAT REWARD" >> Kudos to those running the experiment. Cheap labor is great.
Pft, as a broke college student, I'd do it. It would sure beat flipping burgers for a summer job.
Especially if you take a laptop as hand luggage and sign up for wireless broadband... $20k plus 100 days straight to play WoW, hell I'd sign up!
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Simulating a mission to Mars..... Is that like 'Space Camp' for adults?
I guess if I didn't mind two brief periods of action separated by 6 months of sleep, I'd have volunteered too.....
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
So...
$20,000/100 Days = $200 dollars, day.
$200/24 hours = $8.33/hour.
Some people really need to do the math before going "OMG THATS A GREAT REWARD" >>
Kudos to those running the experiment. Cheap labor is great.
As a Australian IT trainee that is more than I get per hour.
It's been done before
What?
The ballistic missiles got it worse. They're stuck in a sub filled with Russians. They don't even have the option of committing suicide because their self-destruct mechanism is wired wrong.
"The purpose of the experiment is to analyse whether human beings are capable of co-existing in a small environment without showing signs of significant mental and physical deterioration"
Is it april fools yet, or is this the dumbest study ever?
Now there's a headline I want to see.
So... $20,000/100 Days = $200 dollars, day. $200/24 hours = $8.33/hour. Some people really need to do the math before going "OMG THATS A GREAT REWARD" >> Kudos to those running the experiment. Cheap labor is great.
They also get room and board that whole time. Any volunteers that can completely disconnect from their housing payments would basically be pocketing over $6,000 a month they couldn't have done otherwise.
Cheap labor is great, to those who can do math.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
What idiot thought mixing people from different cultures (historically hostile ones, too) and then adding alcohol, for months at a time, was a good idea?
You'll notice the opinion of the female Canadian was not included (typical Slashdot sexism). I bet she wouldn't have touched any of them with a bargepole.
I piss off bigots.
Well, my boat wasn't filled with Russians; as far as I know, we only had a couple of guys of Eastern European descent :).
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
What idiot thought mixing people from different cultures (historically hostile ones, too) and then adding alcohol, for months at a time, was a good idea?
The one who put a lot of money into the betting poll on that result.
Sexual harassment, rather than a soap opera.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6955149/page/3/
The most rabid believers in American Exceptionalism are the exact same people whose policies are destroying it.
And every month, someone is voted off the capsule, just like they would in a real mission to mars.
Probably a few intruders too, maybe Dr Spock, Marvin Martian, ET.
Not sure I'm looking for 'Survivor - Mars - Up Late' though.
Here, Fixed it for you: Scientists will keep viagra on the team to keep erected
So... Kudos to those running the experiment. Cheap labor is great.
Isn't this "reward" added to the money they already get? As I understand it, it's not like they are doing the experiment for free. The experiment is their job and the $20.000 is a bonus if they complete the experiment. It's just to motivate the crew to try to stay the whole experiment.
Insert `fortune -o` here
Kudos to those running the experiment. Cheap labor is great.
I believe the $20.000 comes as a bonus to their regular pay.
Insert `fortune -o` here
Whatever they get paid it's not enough, there packing them like sardines in a metal can throwing in a pile of explosives and a nuclear reactor and then shoving it so far underwater plate tectonics will take care of you before then can find the wreckage when soemthing goes wrong.
I may agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to face the consequences of saying it.
Reminds me of an old submarine joke:
Q: How deep can the most advanced American submarines go?
A: All the way to the bottom*.
* Subsequent surfacing may be problematic.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
So... I live in a different economy and would be willing to pay for some online work in your spare time if you were interested. I need some light web design, some content filtering, or would pay for local art photography (not nudes or anything like that - just tour guide and naturalist type stuff). You interested? Do you know someone who might be? Send contact info to the gmail at my slashdot user name.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Wouldn't it be easier to put everyone in a chemically induced coma, hook them up to waste tubes, and feed them intraveinously. Schedule the coma to wear off a few weeks to a month before they're scheduled to arive.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Rule 34.
... would be ones who have had the ventromedial prefrontal cortex of their brains surgically damaged or removed, or those who have naturally atrophied or underdeveloped VMPCs. If you don't know why this would matter, there's Google.
By all means, don't sign up. Sailors on Christopher Columbus ships probably didn't make enough money to justify the added risks, crappy food and many month of boredom and backbreaking labor. Builders of great cathedrals probably made just a little more money than surfs. None of the actual cosmonauts/astronauts or even Barack Obama or Putin made as much money in their years in power as recent AIG executive bonuses.
For some people, living a meaningful life is priceless. For everyone else, there is a mastercard and our money-centered consumer culture. I don't think one group can really succeed in their goals without another. Just take a pick and don't ridicule others too quickly.
Just give them a Nintendo DS full,a CycloDS and a 16GB microSD card full of rsa trimmed games (don't forget to include the DS version of "brain workshop"!). They can spend a lot of time playing against them and whatnot.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Only men are involved this time, and no alcohol.
I wonder, why only men and not a 100% women experiment ?
(Hmmm, there's already a webcam, let's add alcohol to the mix...)
Seriously, is there a reason ?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
That is absolutely shocking. One guy sexually assaulted her and two other guys beat the shit out of eachother, getting blood on the walls.
I can just imagine Emdemol getting hold of this format though, would piss all over Big Brother.
"Gushin to the Diary Room please"
According to the OED, "hangar" is the only correct spelling.
It's not the British spelling.
What idiot thought mixing people from different cultures (historically hostile ones, too) and then adding alcohol, for months at a time, was a good idea?
That was me. Was that wrong?
We're growing a generation of weenies. Lots of folks can get rowdy drunk and practice their drunk-jitsu and get up in the morning and be the best of friends. Especially people who are trapped in a capsule far from home. Maybe they just need to sample poor volunteers. A truly poor person isn't going to let a little thing like needing to be choked out keep him from being friends. He has much bigger issues.
Back in the day Vern hanging you over a balcony by your ankle while he chugged a beer was just a test of Vern's strength and your sense of humor - amd a sign of affection. It was no cause to ask for help, or some reason to have issues with Vern. It was how Vern reminded us that even though he was dumb as a box of rocks, he still could contribute something by not dropping us. We exploited that by getting Vern to disassociate our targets from their baggage in the club, so in the end it mathed out.
BTW: Only one hot Canadian chick? I think I found the problem unless she was insatiable. But she was a Canadian chick, so now I'm confused.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Note that this is 100 days without having to pay for a rent or for food. You can probably sleep 10 hours/day for all they care. There's no work actually that needs to be done, ie. you can choose what you'll do in those 14 awaken hours, right? Plus, once out, you're the cool guy that took part in the Mars experience. IMHO it's not that bad of reward.
so a German engineer, a French airline pilot, and four Russians walk into a capsule...
... and probably no blackjack either.
Is this a russian attempt at the Big Brother/Survivor franchise?
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
http://www.marssociety.nl/emc7_en_speakers.php
Search for Lapierre,
And its project's code name: Teo & Tea
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
You know what happened? 'Vern' became a complete asshole and a major liability. That's what's happened in the current generation.
We will NEVER be able to stick astronauts in absolute isolation for the periods of time conventional rockets will take to reach Mars. Our technology is too unreliable to risk lives so foolishly. The focus should be on next generation propulsion systems, not figuring out how small a space you can force humans to stay in for 2 years before they go insane.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Here's a radical idea, why not do three experiments: men only, mixed and women only. Find out which group handles the isolation best. My guess is that it would be the women only group followed by the men only group.
I think the women only group would handle it best because women are generally less aggressive and better communicators. Handling that sort of isolation will require people that can talk to each other for extended periods of time.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
I think it is more the kudos of completing the experiment than the money. Also, completing it would look great on the resume when they apply for a trip to Mars...
Laughter is the best medicine, except if you have a broken rib.
This man rings the bells of the truth!
Here are the best (photo-quality/looks-quality) pics I could find of Dr. Judith Lapierre:
Best quality, JL center
Little more flattering (no dirt/sunburn), JL right
Artistic impression of "the incident"
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
If the challenge is so much coping with sensory deprivation, why don't they simulate delayed communication with an "earth", give them a laptop with things to be occupied with simulated maintenance tasks, do some onboard training, sample analysis, ..?
And why not research cultures who have to deal with sensory deprivation, as in Canada, Alaska, researches on the North Pole?
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
You do realize that most 9-5 jobs are only 8 hours a day?
Bump it up to 25 bucks an hour and you'll be mroe on the mark.
You also have to figure in that most people wouldn't be working for 24 hours a day. Most would only work 8-12 hours a day. So they are still going to make the money faster than someone to just has a $9.00 an hr job at 8hrs a day with 2 days a week off.
Your English is very good.
While I might tolerate Vern the American Galoot for many months with him drunkenly abusing me the whole time (in the name of friendship, of course), I sure as hell won't tolerate Vernski the Russian Galoot doing the same thing... friendship or no.
I piss off bigots.
And they're getting their accommodation and food paid for ... though it can't cost much to live in a small shed on dehydrated meals for 3 months.
That's $200 per day, not per month.
I was thinking that this experiment would be a breeze, if you just filled the capsule with a small team of coders .. and gave them 100 days straight of peace and quiet to actually work on the completely unrealistic specifications and deadlines that they may have on their plate at the moment.
It would be most productive.
But I am sure some management types would interfere in devious ways, and install a telephone in the capsule, so the coders would constantly field calls like these :
- Hey guys, its me from accounts again. I know you are all 'busy' (suppressed chuckle), but could could just drop whatever you are doing, and have a look at my computer for a minute, I think I might have a virus .. just like I had last week. If its not too much effort, do you mind fixing it for me so I can get some 'real' work done. Thanks - oh, and make sure its fixed by lunchtime, because I have a dinner engagement tonight and have to leave at 5 on the dot.
- Hey guys, its me from sales again. We promised a customer several weeks ago that we would provide them with this 'feature' that doesn't exist, and its now overdue. I know this is the first time we have bothered to tell you guys about this, but hey, its really important, so please get on it to immediately. It has to be ready by first thing tomorrow morning .. OK.
- Hey guys, its me from customer support again. I know I have been doing this job for about 5 years now, but I still have no clue how the system operates. I have a customer on the phone you wants to know how they can change their account balance - but I cant find a field on the screen that lets them do that. They are getting irate !! Can you take the call for me please .. I am really busy with other stuff. Putting them through now, thanks.
- Hey guys, its the company director. I have some VIPs here at the moment for a meeting, and I need the boardroom setup so the projector is connected to the internets. And have a look at my laptop whilst you are at it - it still pops up all those windows with that porn stuff. I thought you fixed that for good last week ? I need it fixed properly this time ! And by the way - why weren't you in the office at 8am this morning ? We had so many phone calls to answer, and you guys were nowhere to be seen. My patience is really wearing thin, we have to act as a team here !
- Hey guys, its the company director's teenage son. Im playing CS at home and Im getting my ass handed to me by these n00bs. I reckon its because my gRaPhIcs card doesn't have enough memory. Can you guys pop down the computer shop and organise a decent upgrade part for me, ta. Dad said he would reimburse you next week, no probs. I need it ASAP, thanks guys.
100 days of this crap, and I would be surprised if a team of coders, even in the relative peace, quiet and isolation of a soviet space capsule, would make a significant dent in the growing pile of work on their plates. Werll, at least during 'office hours' that is.
forget about on line gameing with a 40min round trap for data. Even sat broadband has better pings.
The British spelling is hangour .
$73,000 is amazing money no matter where you live. In the US the AVERAGE american HOUSEHOLD (meaning family of 4) makes about 40k/year. You are also forgetting these people have their living expenses covered which is equivelant to lots of cash.
Give me a Ps3 with plenty of games, lots of pr0n and I am good to go for the next 3 months.
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
When I read this I take it to mean that the $20,000 is a bonus on top of the regular salary for the position. I imagine they still get paid a salary if they only make it the full 100 days.
That's how I read it, and if this this is in fact the case then that is a pretty awesome deal so I don't see 5600 applicants as amazing, it should be expected for such a good deal.
I see why there are no Australians in the group...
Don't you mean about 3min? (I know, not much better. )
We are going to be making the trip when the two planets are closest.
Astrophysicists, please forgive me if I'm getting this terribly wrong.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
lets see..
24 - 8 = 16 * 100 = 1,600
20,000 / 1,600 = 12.50
yup it's 12.50 a hour if you just subtract sleeping time, but lets go one step further and assume a 10 hour work day. being that they would be spending that time doing pure weightless(instead of micro-gravity thats in orbit) experiment's as well as experiment's in the artificial gravity in the planned space craft. Not to mention the gardening, ship matainence, and waste management. This should give them some 'personal time' to decompress as working from morning to bed time will hasten any problems with them getting along.
24 -14 = 10 * 100 = 1,000
20,000 / 1,000 = 20.00
so they get payed 20 dollars a hour during working hours for those 100 days. Sounds good, if it wasn't for my medical condition i would sign up.
Still in USSR there was an idea to ban even handshakes after the Cold War's NATO started to develop biological weapon which transmits via handshakes.
"People in Russia expects that women kiss them at work", - what a stupid and untrue notion.
Pfft, I'm used to playing from Australia, our pings are much worse! :P
;)
I jest, but I'm sure there's plenty of online pursuits that quite happily tolerate an hour of round trip time. Slashdot, for one!
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Agreed. $20,000 is just the bonus on top of the regular salary for the position.
In 10 years of working, all of my bonuses combined don't come close to $20,000. They are getting a $20,000 bonus just for 100 days of work.
$8.33/hour is pretty good for a job where the only qualification is to keep breathing.
Hangre
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Sure, pioneers are rarely rewarded well for the maiden voyage. But compare apples to apples. I would consider it a great deal to get paid $20K to go to Mars. This isn't a trip to Mars. It isn't a trip to discover a new continent. It is an experiment where you get locked in a metal box and can't go anywhere for 100 days to see if you go crazy. I would consider it brave to sign up with Columbus. I would consider it stupid to volunteer to be locked on his ship in the harbor for six months to make sure the sailors who actually get to go won't go insane en-route. Some people value money more than others. I too believe a meaningful life is priceless. I am just not seeing the connection between a meaningful life and being locked in a metal box while people watch to see if you go crazy...
No, no, no, dumb study would be the one on their project dossier, p.94. I believe I saw the words 'to screw in a a light bulb' in there.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
I am no astrophysicist, but you forgot to factor in several elements in your reasoning. First, the travel is not instantaneous. Second, both planets orbit. Third, if we are ever to make a manned trip to Mars, it will probably be set to be the shortest possible (well, you had factored that one, but follow me).
The idea is to send a ship from a point A0 on Earth's orbit, where the Earth would be at time 0, to a point Bt on Mars' orbit, where Mars would be at the time t. Obviously, neither at time 0 nor at time t nor anytime in between would Earth and Mars be at their closest. And if the trip takes three months, the Earth goes for one quarter of its full orbit.
So, as you can see, 40 minutes is far from a stretch, considering it's the time necessary for getting an answer, i.e. the double of the time the initial message takes to reach its destination.
Astrophysicists, please forgive me for stepping in unqualified, and for assuming, in my explanation, that the trajectory would be a straight line from A0 to Bt (which I'm not sure it would).
There's nothing like $HOME
Does the guy who makes the spaceship noises get a bonus? Does he have to make that "beep" noise on the audio for everyone, or do they have to make their own beeps?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Scientists will keep a constant vigil on the team via cameras erected in each of the facility's three modules. Those who survive more than 100 days will earn a $20,000 reward.
Is this a russian attempt at the Big Brother/Survivor franchise?
"Reality" TV has certainly diluted the meaning of the verb "to survive".
(The heirs of those that expire will get a free copy of the home game.)
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I wouldn't gladly sleep there:
> "Six volunteers have climbed into a small metal capsule in Moscow as part of a three-month experiment meant
> to simulate a voyage to Mars. The crew -- a German engineer, a French airline pilot, and four Russians"
"In addition to just living bottled up, they will also test various astronaut procedures to cover a wide range of possibilities. These include micrometeor punctures, heart attacks, and the deaths of crewmembers, including the unexpected deaths of the German and the Frenchman, due to arbitrary reason should more intense scrutiny of the approaching Mars detect possible advanced civilization artifacts."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Nope, they'll have tasks to accomplish, to make the experiment more realist. And to keep them sane, I guess.
There's nothing like $HOME
But the cost of living is much lower: no bills for electricity, gas, car, food... You won't be spending any money, so when you get out you'll have a nice sum of money.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Alcohol makes people aggressive. I suggest weed and a way to vaporize it instead of burning it. Relationships will be much better.
Until the paranoia settles in.
When doing this type of research, it most certainly is. One of the things they'll be looking at is what changes happen to people's sleep patterns. The participants are being asked to be guinea pigs, and they are guinea pigs 24/7, so they will be payed accordingly.
P.S. Do people do research with actual guinea pigs? I always thought it was white mice and rats.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Assuming this isn't an April Fool's joke, I would have to agree that there is very little knowledge to be gained here by doing this "study" that hasn't already been done numerous times and in multiple locations.... including multiple locations off of the planet Earth.
Far more credible would be the mission reports from Skylab 4, the various missions to Mir and Salyut, and numerous expeditions to the ISS.
This has been beat to death in concept, and excepting studies of what happens to the human body in reduced (not zero) gravity environments, there is nothing of note to gain with such an experiment.... even by Russians who don't trust American scientific reports.
This is a stupid experiment, and appears to ignore the huge wealth of scientific inquiry on this topic from some very well noted medical and scientific journals.
This would make a fun "reality" TV show, but other than that it would be a pointless exercise. Even TV's "Big Brother" does this concept somewhat better anyway.
Who knows, with isolation like this, there may be something to be gained given the right kind of people.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
$200 dollars, day. $200/24 hours = $8.33/hour
Yep. Now try it like this: $200/(24 - 8). $12.5. Still not groundbreaking, but better.
Get your own free personal location tracker
I'm sure there's plenty of online pursuits that quite happily tolerate an hour of round trip time. Slashdot, for one! ;)
Hmm. How do you win this thing then?
Get your own free personal location tracker
"$20,000/100 Days = $200 dollars, day. $200/24 hours = $8.33/hour"
In this economy, I'm sure plenty of people would be very happy to make 20k for lounging in a 19,500 cubic feet capsule for 3 months. Actually I'm sort of doing that now, except instead of a capsule it's a house, and instead of making $20,000 I'm actually paying to live here.
From the article: "This time, conditions will be much improved, with team members allowed to bring DVDs, laptops and books with them."
with hard drives as cheap as they are, put me in there with a couple terabyte of TV episodes and movies over the last 30 years and I'd be happy.
"scheduled for December, which will see another group of volunteers spending over 500 days in the same conditions. "
Where do I sign up?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
"What poor math!....Yeah, for a 7 day work week... A 24 hour work day. Yeah!"
They don't get to come out on weekends, so yes, it is a 7 day work week, and while some people argue "sleeping shouldn't count" I say they are still in the capsule and if the scientists decided to simulate a explosion in the middle of the night they would have to get up and tend to it so yes they are still "working" while they sleep.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Slashdot is an MMO, you can't 'win' it. That's why some of us have been playing for decades and we still haven't quit. ;)
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
... wasn't it called "BioSphere"?
+++OK ATH
NASA and the Russian space agency are unaware of a problem discovered and solved forty years ago that will cause mental breaks and fights on long term space missions. There have been mental breaks on scientific missions for over a hundred years including a mass insanity event on the Belgian Polar Expedition of 1898. None of the leaders of these expeditions and scientific missions have been aware of Subliminal Distraction. They did not know how to provide Cubicle Level Protection or warn astronauts/expedition members about this problem. Subliminal Distraction, a normal feature of human physiology, is explained in college psychology under the physiology of sight and hearing. Acoustic SD is believed to be a fatiguing factor in business offices. The mental breaks of Visual SD are believed to be a harmless temporary episode of confusion. The Cubicle was designed to deal with the vision startle reflex to control the problem by 1968. There was a full psychotic break on a Russian space mission, Soyuz-21, and a hatchet murder in a Russian Antarctic station. The Russian space agency proposed twelve reasons for the Soyuz-21 incident but none of them were proven. When fist fights began to happen over chess games Russia banned chess in space. Psychological problems continue on both Russian and American space missions. No cause has ever been proven for these mental problems but Subliminal Distraction is the most likely source for them. The reason SD should be suspected is the too-small single-room situation in space missions and that most of the victims recover once they leave the confines of those cramped living and working arrangements. In the Belgian Polar Expedition incident there was one case of permanent insanity. Everyone else recovered when they worked three months outside the stranded ship to chop it out of the ice. VisionAndPsychosis.Net is a six year investigation of SD. The Astronauts & Insanity page has the book references and links. I began this investigation when my wife had a psychotic break thirty days after her office in the payroll department of the University of Alabama was changed eliminating Cubicle Level Protection. This problem is unknown by anyone in medicine or psychiatry. Knowledge of it is limited to a very few teachers and those designers/engineers working for office furniture manufacturers of Systems Furniture, Cubicles. They all believe it is harmless. http://visionandpsychosis.net/
In that type of research subjects are not payed by the hour, it's a lump sum, meaning that either you stay the whole course and get paid or you are not get paid at all if you do not stay the whole course.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
NL stands for?
Netherlands?
Hey! This would make a great TV show...
:-(
Oh, never mind.
"I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for, er... food." Col. Jack O'Neil, SG-1
So the only way you are willing to contribute to the achievements of humanity is by taking the most glorious and exciting part of the task? Fine by me, go and apply to be part of the flight crew. Personally I don't think I am qualified, but I do think I could sit in bunker for 100 days. Funny thing though, when it comes to really selecting a crew, they might prefer someone who has already has a proven ability to sit in the metal box for 18 months without going bonkers.