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NASA's HI-SEAS Project Results Suggests a Women-Only Mars Crew

globaljustin writes "Alan Drysdale, a systems analyst in advanced life support and a contractor with NASA concluded, "Small women haven't been demonstrated to be appreciably dumber than big women or big men, so there's no reason to choose larger people for a flight crew when it's brain power you want," says Drysdale. "The logical thing to do is to fly small women." Kate Greene, who wrote the linked article, took part in the first HI-SEAS experiment in Martian-style living, and has some compelling reasons for an all-women crew, energy efficiency chief among them: Week in and week out, the three female crew members expended less than half the calories of the three male crew members. Less than half! We were all exercising roughly the same amount—at least 45 minutes a day for five consecutive days a week—but our metabolic furnaces were calibrated in radically different ways. During one week, the most metabolically active male burned an average of 3,450 calories per day, while the least metabolically active female expended 1,475 calories per day. It was rare for a woman on crew to burn 2,000 calories in a day and common for male crew members to exceed 3,000. ... The calorie requirements of an astronaut matter significantly when planning a mission. The more food a person needs to maintain her weight on a long space journey, the more food should launch with her. The more food launched, the heavier the payload. The heavier the payload, the more fuel required to blast it into orbit and beyond. The more fuel required, the heavier the rocket becomes, which it in turn requires more fuel to launch.

15 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Dear Liza! by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sadly, yes.

    Because if it hadn't been there, sure as shit, someone would have bitched about a statement like that being missing.

    People nitpick the submissions and never complement the good ones.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  2. Re:oh man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    My mother was killed in a flame-war, you insensitive clod!

  3. Re:Compelling, but a mix still better... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nah, just send one guy. He can do all the heavy lifting; plus he'll be the happiest guy in the solar system.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  4. Re:Dear Liza! by CaptainDork · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm indifferential to them.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  5. Re:That's great and all but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    How about looking at it this way:

    A spaceship full of healthy, trim, petite lonely females, isolated from the rest of humanity for years. On High Def TV.

    What's not to like?

  6. So Larry Buchanan was right? by Venotar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mars does need women.

  7. And what about Venus? by oldmac31310 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I suppose we'll have to send the men there and that will turn the whole thing on it's head.

    --
    http://www.acetonestudio.com
  8. That's how the adage goes... by blueshift_1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess it's time to update the adage of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" to "Women go to Mars, Men chill out and drink beer on Earth"

  9. Mars Needs Women by djKing · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yet another case of Science Fiction becoming Science Fact ;)

    --
    Free as in "the Truth shall set you..."
  10. There's a throwback 1950's movie idea by UncleWilly · · Score: 5, Funny

    First spaceship to Mars; one male captain and a crew of women!

  11. Seriously, Nobody? by mythosaz · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...just don't put any mission critical supplies in pickle jars.

  12. Re:That's great and all but... by amiga3D · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sounds like a great reality show. That should help NASA fund the trip.

  13. Re:Women prefer male bosses by bughunter · · Score: 5, Funny

    the correct answer to space travel is obvious, its dwarfs

    Obviously. Because dwarfs with high constitutions get saving throw bonuses, and they all get to hit bonuses vs. space orcs and galactic goblinoids.

    --
    I can see the fnords!
  14. Re:Compelling, but a mix still better... by sexconker · · Score: 3, Funny

    Send amputees missing their legs. Legs are dead weight in space. You can maneuver in zero G with just your arms.

    StarFox pilots have their legs cut off so they can fit into the cockpits of the Arwings and to prevent blackouts in high-acceleration maneuvers.
    Go look at the original box art and manuals if you don't believe me. They've all got mechanical prosthetics.

  15. Re:Compelling, but a mix still better... by torsmo · · Score: 3, Funny

    "the" instead of "ze"? That's not how we speak German in the US.