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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.
The end of that post was totally unnecessary. Did we really need our hands held to make that connection between amount of food required and the weight/cost of a launch?
That is a pretty compelling reason to have most of the crew women.
However I'd argue in a truly remote environment where no external help is to be had, that the raw strength a few very fit males could provide could be useful in an emergency.
Some women can also be very strong, but then would there be any metabolism benefit?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is going to be great. I can't think of a single reply to this I could make that wouldn't start an immediate flame war other than the one I'm making, and that's only because it's totally off topic. And I think there's still a 50/50 chance it'll happen.
Instead it is: Radiation and muscle loss
Long term travel exposes humans large amounts of radiation, in particular from cosmic rays, and from
In addition, living in a low gravity environment destroys your bones.
These two issues are far more problematic than food, air, and water.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Yeah, that's great and all, but the right way to post this is that the ideal astronaut has a low calorie requirements and leave unsaid that the people who can fill that role is women. No need to drag sexism into the fight when there are perfectly logical rationals for crew selection.
And this comparison is useful to point out because.... ?
Men's bodies burn more calories than women's. Larger, heavier, more dense muscle amongst other things. Because of this a man running will burn more calories than a woman (on average). A man sitting still will also burn more calories than a woman.
Mars does need women.
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
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"
Yet another case of Science Fiction becoming Science Fact ;)
Free as in "the Truth shall set you..."
No really. Before you mod this flamebait, check the studies. It's 100% true. Statistically speaking (well, at least according to several large surveys), most women actually do prefer male authority in the work-place.
http://www.businessweek.com/ar...
And there are thousands of nightmare tales about all female workplaces...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem...
Of course such statistics and stories will forever be dismissed by social justice warriors... And there are many here on Slashdot.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
I recall hearing that from a physiological standpoint, the best fighter pilot is a short female with slightly elevated blood pressure. Apparently, such a pilot could tolerate G-forces better in addition to requiring slightly less thrust from the aircraft. I'm not surprised they're better in space.
Of course for historical reasons that's not a common profile for a fighter pilot or an astronaut.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
"Leather Goddesses of Phobos!"
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
First spaceship to Mars; one male captain and a crew of women!
They suck down less oxygen too. Divers know this firsthand ;-)
If you're looking for volunteers, I've got a kid that I would be more than happy to send to Mars for a few months.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
If your Mars mission is cutting it so close that the calorie requirement between men and women is a major factor ... maybe that's a sign no one should go using your plan.
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins
...just don't put any mission critical supplies in pickle jars.
It's how will he pick up the phone with no arms or legs.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I love the fact that Mars is the only planet known to man that is solely inhabited by robots
Next to my desk we have an Ire Extinguisher. Our boss is really assertive, so we like the idea of having it.
Anyone not realizing that there are differences between men and women is an idiot. Men can lift more weight than women, and we have known this for thousands of years. In fact my favorite book "The Republic" has Socrates stating that Women should be in the military, even though everyone else argues that they can't carry as much weight into battle. It's not a shock, it's a fact that we each have some strong and weak points regarding our physique.
We also know that women tend to use more emotion in judgement than men. In fact women use emotion all the time quite, and quite differently from men. Amazingly, we have known about these differences for again thousands of years. It does not mean a women can't learn math, it means that when it comes to a snap decision a women will weigh the decision with a bit more emotion than a man. That is not a bad thing! At the same time, it does not make a man's decision always wrong.
Working together, all of these things can offset very nicely. 2 men and 2 women on the mission would give half of the crew with extra lift capability if needed. It would also provide different views of problem solving on the spot. I really don't see this as any type of problem, but then again I'm not a sexist.
Instead of promoting a work together attitude, TFA is yet another example of trying to separate the masses and keep us bickering with each other. Meanwhile, nothing will happen because the bureaucrats want your money for at least their lifetime. They do not progress, harmony, peace, or anything that may risk their lifelong free ride telling you how to live and where your tax money should go.
See how the game works? I really hope so. Don't argue the exception to the rule, argue the "normal" if you are going to respond.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
No it doesn't because you are grossly oversimplifying.
BMR calculators give an average estimate, not an exact individual figure. People vary around the average. To complicate things further, people are NOT equally efficient in their absorption of calories/nutrients from the same food.
Just what mission control wants to deal with. A cramped can more inhospitable and treacherous than the planet they're heading for.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
Apparently four women is a stable number. This was the advice from a 14th century Moslem man on what is the best number of wives to have. One will be lonely when the husband is away, two will fight, three will gang up two to one, just as you said, but four works out to two stable pairs.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
So are we giving up on the idea of some sort of low metabolism sleep state?
Surely it had absolutely nothing to the fact that by and large women were actively discouraged if not banned from higher education throughout most of modern history, with as a general rule up until the 20th century only aristocratic women being able to take up the sciences (as a hobby - but even that was actively discouraged, supposedly "bad for their health"), and the few women that managed to publish scientific findings generally had to do so under a male name. No, clearly that had no influence whatsoever!. Clearly science is all about aggressiveness! Which is why the world's greatest scientific discoveries have been made by wolverines.
Next to my desk we have an Ire Extinguisher. Our boss is really assertive, so we like the idea of having it.