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Six Men Endure 105-Day Mars Flight Simulator
drunken_boxer777 writes with this excerpt from an AP report:
"Six men emerged from a metal hatch after 105 days of isolation in a mock spacecraft, still smiling after testing the stresses that space travelers may face on the journey to Mars. They had no television or Internet and their only link to the outside world was communications with the experiment's controllers — who also monitored them via TV cameras — and an internal e-mail system. Communications with the outside world had 20-minute delays to imitate a real space flight."
Give em the newest rpg(or jrpg grinder if you like). Make the story and game so it updates their world with earth's servers on par with the delays and there you go. Next thing you know they wouldn't want to leave the ship. Or if rts is their fancy ... well you got the idea...
Sounds like they should add an Xbox360 or a PS3 to the supply list. They can practice their hand-to-eye coordination just in case of hostile little-green-men
"You were expecting something witty here ?"
These days we'd only be talking a few watts per person for a modern laptop. Surely they could spare that... a little bit of diverted solar, or reuse some of the power from the 1 hour daily exercise they're probably expected to take.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
This is a perfect marketing opportunity for an E-Book reader. A device like a Kindle that gets VERY long battery life + can hold MANY books would be the perfect design for the weight conscious space launch, limited electrical supply, and low-bandwidth data link (email).
If I were to spend 200+ days in transit I would want a lot of reading material. All duties become dull and repetitive, it's the down-time that will drive a man insane from boredom.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
If you want to know what 365 days in real isolation in a tin can feels like... At least we had: (1) plenty of things to do, (2) the pressure that if we failed bad we'd most likely die. They had: (1) nothing to do, (2) the possibility to open the can if things got bad...
Non-Linux Penguins ?
How about using a second hand soviet nuclear submarine?
Crushing pressures outside the vessel, old reactor core 50 metres from where you sleep, noisy cramped environment, etc.
Also, they would *have* to perform certain maintenance tasks or risk any number of horrible deaths.
The value I see in this is that if you repeat such experiments many times, you can start testing theories about the interaction of certain personality types, and also test theories about choosing optimal group sizes, gender mix, degree of contact with Earth (less might actually be better). Also, I know that Mir cosmonauts frequently got pissed off because they were given too much work. Experiments like this could establish an appropriate threshold for "minimum necessary slack time".
OK, I take it back - maybe there is a lot to be learned from experiments like this. As a bonus they're absurdly cheap (as a fraction of the total Mars mission cost) and if repeated often enough, they really might help (in unexpected ways) with planning a mission which is least likely to fail.
(Though it's worth adding that if the actual Mars astronauts got into bloody fistfights and sexually harassed the hot Canadian crewmate, Americans might actually tune in and learn more astronomy sort of by accident. Hmm, maybe Rupert Murdoch should fund the mission and give FOX/Sky broadcast rights to what would surely be the most watched reality show in all of history!)
That is actually a great idea. A reasonable submersible, or some kind of isolation in the Arctic or Antarctic in the winter would focus their minds nicely on Staying Alive. You don't want to kill them, but you do want to keep aware of the consequences of screwing up.
Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, and let us slay him... and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
I've been saying that for years (and not just because I'm USN/Submarine service). The fighter jock mentality that worked so well for Mercury works less well as missions become longer and more demanding - but the submariner mentality is perfectly suited for such missions.
On the subject of Alan Shepard - I once saw a study that showed that NASA (probably unconsciously) tended to select Naval and Marine aviators over USAF pilots for mission command and pilot slots. Not overwhelming so, but the ratio was decidedly lopsided. (IIRC there were at least two all Navy Apollo crews to only one all USAF crew.)
Isaac Asimov wrote a short story along those lines. I can't remember the title. Massive spoilers here, though you can probably guess what they are just from the context of this reply...
It's set in a space capsule on the way to the moon (it was written before the Apollo landings.) One of the men starts going kinda loopy during the long isolation, gets crazy ideas about Man's place in the universe, maybe it's all a big trick. When they finally reach the moon and start coming around to the dark side, which had never before been seen by human eyes, they see that the entire moon is just a gigantic stage prop with wooden struts and fabric stretched over it. The guy goes insane and tries to kill the others to keep the secret.
Turns out the entire trip was actually a simulation, conducted in a research facility on Earth, though the crew didn't know it. The image of the moon they saw from their viewport was actually generated using a scale model of the moon and a tracking camera. The simulation was supposed to end before the camera came around to the far side of the moon, but the mission controllers forgot or were asleep or something.
It's a cool story. Probably would have been cooler if you hadn't read this...
But do not think, even for a moment, that this gives particularly meaningful data on what a real Mars trip would be like!
i see what you're saying, but i have to disagree some. remember the stanford prison experiment? everyone there knew they were part of a study or an experiment, and yet they went well beyond what their described roles were, into some very dark places.
not only is time travel possible, it's irrelevant.
"Capricorn One", or to "It's a windy day in Arizona", hehehe...
Well, these three took their chicken coop VERY SPHERIOUSLY. But, yeh, as mentioned before, if they ate beans (or, even opened a box of natto), they would suffer from a new sphere of end-fluence...
What would make it more interesting is if the sphere were WELDED SHUT, and then put in a dunking tank. Transparent Aluminum-like ports could be in the design, but the tank would have flow-makers, and then all sorts of flotsam, veggies, effluent, or tentacular things could from time to time be introduced, of course with a life-like starfield.
To make things MORE interesting, fire it across the desert SLAC-like (Stanford Linear Accelerator) tube at about 800mph to simulate g forces, then have the "launch" terminate in the tank. 0-g might be tough, unless the tank incorporated a rotating arm undulating, and nutating as necessary, with uulating noises on the outside. Basically, TRICK these guys into thinking "simulation" was a lie, and that they are trapped in a sphere. To make things even MOOOOORE interesting, have the uulations coincide with periodic dishing in of the sphere, like crushing. Have the computer report gravimetric pressures having reduced structural integrity by 28% in the x-year duration travel. Make the comms delays longer and longer, and then break the toilet.
These 3 won't be friendly with each other for too much longer. They'll either be lovers, enemies, or frenemies. Or, LoNeMies.... Especially if they are allowed to "smell" space and think they are unmonitored and running out of time to profess their (un)dying admiration for each other while they still have fresh water (or NASA urine) to bathe with.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I read your response and I liked it....mostly.
Lest anyone disagree, he's pretty damn accurate. I'm a former submariner. I've lived through fires, suicides (not me, silly!) and other casualties that really scared the personnel and myself on board my submarine. Let's focus on what scared the shit out of me. Floating in the middle of the ocean with no hydraulic pressure to steer the ship, no hydraulics to open and close critical valve's to safety-of-ship systems, limited fuel and using reactor power is now out of the question, bobbing on the ocean for three full days in heavy sea state. Since the reactor was placed in a 'safe' state, we used our diesel engine (yes, just 1!) to power critical systems. Limited lighting and ventilation only.
None of us were too sure if we'd make it back alive and/or in one piece. The only thing we had going for us is that we could still pull fresh oxygen into the boat. Oh, and the captain secured drills for the remainder of the cruise. He always made us run drills. Always except this time.
We had it made.
Now for the 'mostly' part. And this is the fun stuff.
You got 6 guys here who basically 'behaved' during the simulation. Wait till 60 days begins to set in. They'll start screwing with each other's minds. Trust me.
We used to lock people in their bunks by raising the hinged bunk and placing the support bar in its lock to keep it raised at 45 deg with the victim in it. For our astro buddies, Straps to keep you in your bunk will strangely become stuck with another victim in them.
Personal items will be held for ransom by some unknown assailant. Pictures will be posted of said personal item every few weeks. Sometimes with pieces of it missing, often being torn off of it...violently. Sometimes there are doubles of the items so as not to really destroy the object. Other times it's the real thing and your personal device is being destroyed!
Food will be contaminated. That's all I'm saying.
Why beat and a man down when you can slowly enjoy watch him tear himself apart because of the things that are subversively committed against him.
I'm no prophet here; but, I'm sure that as space travel becomes routine there are people that are going to enjoy tormenting others endlessly. Just like here on Earth. Ah, smell that fresh air.
Yeah, and we all know people always act rationally...
In fact, that's just what this experiment was designed to find out, wasn't it? How people would react? People here on Slashdot seem to have this automatic assumption that the experiment would be successful only if those folks actually managed the full 105 days, but that's not true.
Let me stress that: this sort of study isn't a computer game. No outcome is, a priori, "good" or "bad"; they all lead to further insights. Nobody's trying to get a specific result.