Volunteers Wanted For Simulated 520-Day Mars Trip

anglico writes 'Starting in 2010, an international crew of six will simulate a 520-day round-trip to Mars, including a 30-day stay on the martian surface. In reality, they will live and work in a sealed facility in Moscow, Russia, to investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration space mission. ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part.'

Comments

In Soviet Russia...

[tool462]

Mars goes to you!

Okay, now that's out of the way, only intelligent discussion from here on out. Come on Slashdot, I know you can do it.

Re:In Soviet Russia...

[davester666]

It needs an element of reality, such as a vacuum chamber around the compartments/rooms these pseudo-astro/cosmo/euronauts will use, and if a leak is detected, the area along with the -nauts all get blown up...

Make a porno

[mister_playboy]

I say they should make a porno, actually. Who doesn't want to do what sex on other planets will be like?

Granted, many of us here on /. don't even know what sex on this planet is like... :)

Re:Make a porno

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course we know what sex is like.

It involves a high-speed internet connection and a hand, right?

Re:Make a porno

[Razzious]

If the Martian were underage it could bring a new meaning to "illegal alien"

Re:Make a porno

[secolactico]

And thank goodness for broadband.

Remember the days of 300/1200 baud dialup? That Pamela Anderson download would be halfway thru her chest and you would already be done.

And I know I'm dating myself (besides in *that* sense). Not because of the 300 baud reference, but by referring to Pam Anderson as fap-worthy material.

Re:520 people, that's a big ship

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup. You read that right. 520 people for a 6 day party.

Day 4

[jtownatpunk.net]

Mars needs women!

Re:I hear Pauly Shore's available

[Anonymous Coward]

For a one-way mission?

Re:It will start with only 6 people...

[0100010001010011]

Lesbian crews. More specifically, HOT lesbian crews.

Video cameras everywhere, the trip would pay for itself.

Re:why 520 days?!

[oldspewey]

Wouldn't that suck? Spending 8 months in transit to Mars only to find a crowd waiting for you once you land: "yeah, we actually invented this really cool new engine like the week after you guys took off."

One can only hope

[mandark1967]

that one of the volunteers spends each of those 520 days asking, "Are we there yet?!" over and over...

Re:520 people, that's a big ship

[natehoy]

Obviously you're reading this from the perspective of a project manager.

"If it takes 520 days for 6 people to get to Mars, we'll get 520 people and make it in 6 days!"

Re:This is not new

[Ngarrang]

See: Biodome. The failed movie or the failed experiment.

Biodome was a different kind of experiment. There, they were trying to create a self-sustaining Martian colony. The Russians are conducting a much simpler experiment...stick a bunch of people into a metal tube for year and a half and see if they go looney or not. From the article, it doesn't mention if the mission has to live on the same water or not, or a slowly dwindling food supply. But, that is probably secondary to the just-as-dangerous mental effects isolation being targeted for study.

Re:Let them play WOW

[ae1294]

What's the current world record for the longest game of Monopoly?

Microsoft? no wait... US Steal??? damnit.. I'm no good at pop quiz's...

Re:Let them play WOW

[S77IM]

"We're going to lock you in this metal box, blast it into outer space on a giant pile of explosives, and then you'll drink your own urine for 6 months and crash-land in the ocean."

I think that kind of requires an adventurous go-getter attitude.

  -- 77IM

Re:Let them play WOW

[mewsenews]

"We're going to lock you in this metal box [...] for 6 months [...]"

I think that kind of requires an adventurous go-getter attitude.

This is Slashdot. If sitting on my ass for 6 months is an adventure, then I'm Buzz Lightyear.

Relativity

[Korbeau]

An astronaut playing WoW during a 520 days trip to Mars while moving near the speed of light could barely get his character to level 40, while in the same time-span on earth his identical twin will easily have maxed the gear of 3 different characters.

(of course, one might argue that the astronaut simply is a n00b)

Europeans only?

[MoxFulder]

ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part.

WTF!?

If I were going on a trip to Mars, the last thing I'd take along would be some techno-listening Eurotrash with unreasonable demands for prompt health care and a propensity for labor unrest. Hell, with their thin figures and tight jeans, some Eurotrashtronaut might get sucked out of the spacecraft through some any ol' tiny tear in the outer wall.

Don't they need any good old corn-fed Midwestern American boys on this mission? Sign me up.

Re:Europeans only?

[Anonymous Coward]

They don't have storage room for the sheep :-(

Re:Europeans only?

[skine]

ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part.

WTF!?

If I were going on a trip to Mars, the last thing I'd take along would be some techno-listening Eurotrash with unreasonable demands for prompt health care and a propensity for labor unrest.

Yeah, but if we shut the worst of them in a small room together, then the world becomes a better place for the next year and a half.

Re:Europeans only?

[MoxFulder]

Well, I didn't mean this as flamebait OR insightful... just funny.

I guess looking for humor on Slashdot is like looking for life on Mars ;-)

Don't tell me, I've heard this one before!

[Locke2005]

They get volunteers from America, Russia, and Poland. The Americans insist on taking 100 cases of junk food, the Russians insist on taking 100 cases of vodka, and the Poles insist on taking 100 cases of cigarettes. After 520 days, the American emerge even fatter than before. The Russians emerge slightly soused, but still in good spirits. Lastly, the poles emerge, looking shaky and sullen, and the first words out of their mouths are, "Has anybody here got a match?"

Let them play slashdot

[turing_m]

It's kinda hard to play real-time interactive games when you're dealing with round-trip signal times of up to 40 minutes... I think that would knock out MMO games.

Posting to slashdot would still work well enough, although you'd cop more -1 redundants than normal. Otherwise I guess you could play single player games. Like System Shock, or Doom for example. What could possibly go wrong?

Re:Let them play WOW

[PaganRitual]

The freaky part is that only 28 members of the crew were female.

Re:520 people, that's a big ship

[im_thatoneguy]

So what you're saying is that past research has found that Russians shouldn't go to Mars?

Re:This is not new

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Some sort of self-sustaining lubricant producing plant, mood lighting, and all the latest porn transmitted from Earth. Give the women a Sybian or some equivalent shit too.

Only on Slashdot would someone trying to use sex to stave off boredom, in a mixed gender pool, suggest everyone be given masterbatory aides.

And only on Slashdot would it be modded insightful.