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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.'
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.
See: Biodome. The failed movie or the failed experiment.
They doesn't know about the new Canadian engine?
I can't call that English
I vote for YOU!
Your out-of-this-world post suggests you are overqualified for the experiment.
Save the Music; Save the World at http://www.TuneTriever.com (Our latest Android game)
I figure it this way. They need to pass a lot of downtime. Let them play a MMORPG. Then if your really creative you can let them farm gold and pay for the trip by selling the gold and characters they create.
Well I am kind of serious about the first part. Its going to take something highly addictive to keep them occupied during the trip there and back. Certain types of games would do it just fine. If you could find a way of combining learning into them all the better, but in some ways mindless entertainment may be key.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
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... :)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
I hear Pauly Shore's available
When does this happen in the movie?
They'll be stuck inside because they will end up poisoning the atmosphere and they won't be let out until they clean up.
Orwell was an optimist.
They turned it into a reality TV show with all sorts of hidden cameras and microphones placed everywhere.
And while it's great that they've asked for Europeans volunteers, there would be a lot more drama if you threw one or two American 20-somethings into the mix.
-- So where do I sign up?
Yup. You read that right. 520 people for a 6 day party.
Mars needs women!
...but unless sterilization is part of the experiment, there will be far more than 6 in 520 days!
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
Unless it is realistic with a real chance of death should an air leak occur, or a system fails, such as Apollo 13, it will be almost meaningless. Of course, if the participants think there is a chance of death, even if a rescue is allowed that they don't know about, it might be OK and not taint the results.
so there aren't any extra unplanned astronauts to arrive on "mars"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Okay, this might sound a little naive, but why can't they use people who have long prison sentences but are not severely criminal? The data gained concerning space travel could allow these people to contribute to society when otherwise they would just be rotting in a cell.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver --Proverbs 25:11
Upon exiting the simulated spacecraft:
"Hi! Thanks for wasting 18 months of your life sitting with five people with bad body odour playing Canasta until your eyes bled.
Btw, we decided to use VASIMR and we'll get there in 40 days!
Cheers, and thanks for the help. Btw, your dad died."
that one of the volunteers spends each of those 520 days asking, "Are we there yet?!" over and over...
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
I've always thought submarine crews would be better suited to space travel than Air Force test pilots. They need people who can deal with being in small, confined, pressurized vessels for long stretches of time without being able to go outside. And they wouldn't insist on having a window and control stick!
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!"
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Here there are plenty of volunteers. They are practicing Mars exploration since many years with impressive results. As you can read perusing their EVA reports, they discovered plenty of important thinghs, like the importance of rifles for keeping away polar bears, how to study ionospheric radio propagation, and so on. Quick! Apply here now!
The United States Congress.
We won't miss them, really. How many more new laws do we need? Seriously.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
At least according to this Slashdot article http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/10/19/1324222/VASIMR-Ion-Engine-Could-Cut-Mars-Trip-To-39-Days
You know, if they sent 520 people, at least there'd be some_thing_ to do... because there'd be some_one_ to do...
Lame joke, I know, but on a serious note I bet the more people they add to the experiment, the less likely everyone is to go batshit insane.
The group of 6 people better include more then one female, otherwise they will have at least one if not 3+ dead when they come back. If it's a group of 6 men, odds are still someone will not make it out alive.
There was a joke in the former soviet bloc satellite states:
What are the prizes for "Who knows more about the USSR" competition?
1st prize: 1 week in USSR
2nd prize: 1 month in USSR
3rd prize: 1 year in USSR
Guess who won? The CIA!
I wonder if the monitoring the psychological effects of the experiment would include adding an increasing the amount of lag between when the isolated crew send a message to Mission Control, and when they get a response back. After all, instant response would make the crew feel like mission control were just a phone call away. Also, wouldn't the atmosphere of the environment be different, because you would always know you could be brought out if something went wrong. To run a real simulation, wouldn't the crew need to really think they were millions of miles away with no chance of rescue?
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)
Answer is no.
And the psychological and medical aspects of 520-days period are bullshit, Slashdot readers have sat on a chair longer than that and they're fine.
Quit the safety mumbo-jumbo, send them first, ask questions later.
How much one would be payed?
I believe "volunteer" does not imply "free" (gratis).
Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
People act like sticking these people in an isolated chamber for a few hundred days is a new problem, it isn't. Sailors have been doing it for centuries.
If you want to study the effects further, give these people all a free 600 day cruise around the open sea. They're going to get horny, they're going to get angry, and they're going to get bored. That is what will happen.
Put a server on board with some quake and a few other video games. Give them all a bunch of contraceptives.
It will be fine. Trust me.
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
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.
My bicyles
Wouldn't the psychological effects of knowing that you're taking part in a (mostly meaningless) test negate any actual behavioral data collected?
If I was given the opportunity to walk on Mars, I'd consent to outright torture for 6 months.
If I was placed in isolation, and told that at the end, I'd have gobs of paperwork and medical exams to complete, my psychological perspective would be rather different. I'd get very bored very quickly.
On the flipside, if I became severely ill in space, I'd (rightfully) panic, while I'd be more comfortable in an isolated trial, knowing that the full facilities of Moscow's health system were at my disposal, a few blocks away.
Also don't forget the physiological effects of zero-gravity and increased radiation in space that you wouldn't experience on earth.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Here's a link to the application...and good luck to you all.
What I find most interesting, is that Canada is a member of the ESA:
The candidate’s nationality and residence is restricted to ESA member states participating in the ELIPS programme (Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Norway, The Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom or Canada).
/., you disappoint me.
What?
Yeah, because what a group of forcibly confined men really need to help them get along is to throw some totty into the middle of them.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
I heard that VASIMR plasma engine cuts the trip time to 40 days. Those poor volunteers :-)
...and work, actually. People need to feel productive, even if they are not. a RPG like WoW could fulfill this need, but a product of some sort would be better.
The interplanetary vessel might include a foundry and machine shop. The astronauts could be tasked with constructing orbital vehicles and ground habitat. The lesbian porn angle, while perhaps morally repugnant to some, would also fulfill The desire to be productive. I imagine producing pornography involves some work, no?
tl:dr Keep leisure time short and precious, to avoid boredom.
^..^
IIRC one time they tried this, there wás a female on board, and it caused problems. But last time it consisted of 6 males, http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE52U4PT20090331 . And I would not bet on having females in this crew either.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
"ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part."
oh wait! how about: ...because everyone knows that Europeans already live in a bubble, so the transition should be no problem for them.
"Crude and slow, clansman. Your attack was no better than that of a clumsy child."
Russia has conducted shorter simulations in the past and has seen firsthand the issues that arise, including sexual harassment. In an eight-month IMBP simulation in 2000, a Russian man twice tried to kiss a Canadian female researcher after two other Russians had gotten into a bloody brawl.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Send six lesbians and install webcams. Might as well make some profit off it right?
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
I would guess the optimal male:female ratio to be best expressed by the term "divide by zero". In other words, all male or all female.
Actually, that doesn't express the problem sufficiently, because if you have an all-one-gender crew and discover you have three homosexuals on board, Houston, we have a problem. Love triangle alert.
The best way to express it would be six people, none of whom are sexually attracted to any one of the others, or three very stable couples, or some other dynamic that does not allow the buildup of sexual tension.
Woody Allen had it right. They can pick anyone they want for the crew as long as each person has an Orgasmotron(*) in their quarters.
(* not sure if I got the spelling right, and I ain't looking it up for fear of what I might find).
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Don't forget lotion and privacy.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
Better yet, make it 3 couples. Couples who have proven to be able to function well. Otherwise competition over mates will end up killing somebody with just as much or more likeliness as 6 men.
Maybe 6 eunuchs is the best way to go?
ERROR: SIG NOT FOUND (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?:
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?"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I smell a new reality TV series. Can we vote people out the air lock?
It seems they talk about nationality, not place of residence... (you might want to check the list of countries, you're elligible only if being from one of few participating in this program; I'm not ;/ )
One that hath name thou can not otter
No sane person would volunteer for this. Therefore the whole study is flawed for its purpose
Less than a month into her run, Lapierre suddenly encountered serious problems. She was twice forcibly French-kissed by the Russian team commander, and soon afterwards witnessed a 10-minute-long fight between two Russians that left blood spattered on the walls.
She insisted that the controversial kisses were not merely “friendly celebrations” and that she had vigorously told the Russian to back off. She quoted him as saying, "We should try kissing, I haven't been smoking for six months. Then we can kiss after the mission and compare it. Let's do the experiment now."
Lapierre dismissed the notion that the Russian thought his actions were normal and acceptable. "Why did he try to pull me out of sight of the camera?" she asked.
When Lapierre's team first entered the modules, Dr. Valery Gushin, the scientific coordinator of the project, voiced attitude that in hindsight could have been seen as warnings about the problem. "Men, they have some expectations from women," he told a Canadian television team. "They want them to be more like women, not just partners. At least Russians do."
Following the incident, Gushin blamed Lapierre. His official report, which Lapierre has seen, saud she had "ruined the mission, the atmosphere, by refusing to be kissed." She should have been taken out, he wrote, and he also insisted that the foreigners had caused the fight.
rock pools and stuff
From "Horse With No Name
There were plants and birds and rocks and things...
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
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?
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
Couldn't the test actually end up being MORE stressful than the real thing because they all know that they're on Earth? It's like dieting for real versus "testing a diet" when your pantry is full of junk food that's locked away from you, much like the classical story of Tantalus.
http://www.tenjou.net/
Required Crew Positions:
Pilot
Scientist
Engineer
Bouncer
Dr. in Theology
Prostitute
IT Dude (to fix the laptops if they break down, though I'd expect viruses to be a non-issue)
Medical Doctor
Supply lots of e-books, video games and movies/television shows on DVD.
So, unless you can fit 8 people or more onto the space-ship I don't think it is worthwhile to attempt interplanetary travel and colonization. Probably more since one or more of those positions should have at least two people.
Now people keep bringing up sex in this thread. You all have dirty, dirty minds. Now, I'd like to think of this as a prison in a more sociable environment. But, what happens after 30 or 40 days if its a man only crew and there are some showers in the facility ... starting to this this would be more like prison than "space" exploration..... wait a minute!
So they haven't tried an female-only crew yet, then.
IMO six females are just as likely to become unhappy as six males.
what are you going to eat for a year? cows? frozen hamburgers?
Meat has lots of calories and can be transported dried and frozen, if necessary. You can't do that with stored vegetables. The ones you grow on board you eat, of course.
read A door into Ocean or The Left Hand of Darkness. Ocean is about an all female world that gets along well without males and Ocean is about an all male world that gets alone well without Females. This can be done, just as long as the gov't doesn't screw up this time.
Five words describe me on a normal day. two words describe me the rest of the time. can you guess?
They should really perform this experiment in Antarctica, in the winter, somewhere near the South Pole (or at least, several hours from the nearest base). Make them eat pre-packaged food and recycled water, and breathe recycled air, for a year and a half, with only the habitat walls standing between themselves and a rapid death from hypothermia, and you'd have something that begins to approach the experience of traveling to Mars.
If we can't keep a crew alive for the required time period in a hostile environment on Earth, it's just stupid to think we're ready to plan to go to Mars.
The Russians worry that they may run out of food, so are bringing some Europeans along as rations.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
No, fire 2 of the 6, make the remaining 4 work 60-80 hours/week, drop all planning and testing from the project schedule, predict completion in 180 days, and bail before the s*it hits the fan.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
So what you're saying is that past research has found that Russians shouldn't go to Mars?
Puritanical blind attitudes to sex are.
The bosses of such a mission would be hung to dry if they would say that the crew would carry a healthy amount of condoms, or that in order to guarantee the success of the mission, the crew had agreed to undergo permanent sterilization.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
No sexism in Open Source or the IT industry.
It is all a figment in the imagination of feminists.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
There is no crew ever that has been that long at sea without further contact with some other people.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Can anyone say "Stanford Prison Experiment"?
The best way to express it would be six people, none of whom are sexually attracted to any one of the others, or three very stable couples, or some other dynamic that does not allow the buildup of sexual tension.
Throw in 520 days in an isolated environment, and none of the above starting parameters has a glimmer of a chance of making it through.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Just make sure you use children!
I am very sucseptible to "let's have another drink"
That's why these experiments are critical.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
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!"
I'm now logging off the internet, forever.
I will never EVER again read anything simultaneously so true, so sad, and so funny.
You mean the rise and fall of the Roman Empire was a failure?
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
That's great until they all start cheating on each other.
Somebody is bound to go nuts before the experiment is over and kill everyone else. The question is: will they make it public when this happens?