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Road To Mars: Solving the Isolation Problem
An anonymous reader writes: As space technology matures, new missions are being funded and humanity is setting its goals ever further. Space agencies are tackling some of the new problems that crop up when we try to go further away than Earth's moon. This New Yorker article takes a look at research into one of the biggest obstacles: extended isolation. Research consultant Jack Stuster once wrote, "Future space expeditions will resemble sea voyages much more than test flights, which have served as the models for all previous space missions." Long-duration experiments are underway to test the effects of isolation, but it's tough to study. You need many experiments to derive useful conclusions, but you can't just ship 100 groups of a half-dozen people off to remote areas of the globe and monitor all of them. It's also borderline unethical to expose the test subjects to the kind of stress and danger that would be present in a real Mars mission. The data collected so far has been (mostly) promising, but we have a long way to go. The technology and the missions themselves will probably come together long before we know how to deal with isolation. At some point, we'll just have to hope our best guess is good enough.
Not any more isolation than expeditions to Antarctica in the late 19th and early 20th century.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
So just send people who are happiest sitting at the same keyboard for days if not hours on end, with minimal human interaction. Problem solved. Surely we can find some smart ones who would be worth sending, if we can pry them out of their homes.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I still think the scale of human mars missions are too small. They need to first develop the engineering to make rotating spacecraft to produce around minimum 0.376 g ( mars gravity), but 1 g craft would be more helpful longer term. To be rotating at less than 1 rpm to avoid nausea means a radius of over 200metres though. But at least with that set up there is more potential living/storage space. The more living space the more people and isolation becomes less of a problem. The larger scale the more protection (especially against radiation) and redundancies of systems can be in place in the event of failures along the way. Ultimately you want a long term project that goes back and forth from Mars to Earth on a regular basis. Something like an extension of the ISS.
The technology and the missions themselves will probably come together long before we know how to deal with isolation.
That is very optimistic. There are a lot of problems more difficult to solve than the problem of isolation. As mentioned, it's similar to the problem of a long-term sea voyage.........
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
The ISS crew stays in their tin can for six month stints and seem to get along fine
Six months is not a year, and a year is not three.
Now, we are sending up a guy who will be there a full year, so we may see other things. Subtle (or not) effects of neurosis is almost a certainty. But such isolation could bring out more serious manifestations.
I think studies of prison inmates in isolation would probably be useful.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The Internet would be essentially unusable, it would take hours just to establish a tcp connection.
People will die. It's that simple. It is not safe, it is not known and mars is an environment hostile to human life. For the first people doing this, isolation will be another issue to deal with.
It seems like an unrealistic ambition to attempt a Mars landing without an established space transport infrastructure, in the same way moon landings were attempted. Consequently, IMHO, I think any realistic colonization of Mars will start with humans orbiting it. First in a capsule/ship, then in a space station with repeatable journeys back home. Who knows, it maybe cheaper to just send a space station there in the first place and solve all of the problems of not having a magnetosphere to shield it first.
Once the infrastructure is established isolation will become less of a problem. The biggest problem we have NOW is the will to get human crewed craft out beyond LEO.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.
Go up with Bethesda's current RPG. You'll be back before you finish it.
Seriously, though: cp library_of_congress /media/box_of_microsd_cards. Read books. Watch movies (and binge on TV seasons). Play games with your crewmates. Teach yourself something. Watch recordings from friends and family, record clips to send back. Invite tech companies to develop push versions of their services; they can't buy publicity like astronauts checking Facebook from Mars.
It's hardly isolation, and six months will go by before you know it.
I guess our biggest challenge is getting to Mars before our collective attention span has decreased to the point where we can't survive without minute-by-minute feedback from our social circle.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Just send ONE person. Someone who enjoys being alone and has their own projects to work on to keep them entertained. No interpersonal friction. A lot fewer resources required. Throw in a decent digital library, a stock of antidepressants, and you're good to go.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Isolation from humans is different than a prison isolation from everything. On the trip they'll have movies on USB and laptops, messages to send home and get from home. Completely unlike any prison experience.
Learn to love Alaska
There are many people that are not 'people' persons who are scientists and engineers (one one assume they'd be on the mission). Make that personality type a selection criteria. I have gone many days without talking to anyone and really been fine with it. Proof would be easy, just check out the phone and cell phone records.
There was a Japanese soldier who stayed in the jungles of Lubang island, Philippines conducting guerrilla operations for 30 years. He saw a leaflet with a message from locals that the war had ended in 1945, but decided it was false. Further messages were dropped by plane some time later, but it was concluded that this was allied propaganda. Some 30 years later they sent his captain into the mountains to personally instruct him that the war was over and finally he surrendered, returning home a hero. So while he did have some interactions with people, they were all hostile.
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
I think studies of prison inmates in isolation would probably be useful.
Not really. Solitary confinement is more a study in sensory deprivation. Child molesters are pretty much cut off from most social interaction, lest they get beat to death, but while away their time reading books, doing crafts and like, and most importantly, have a definite release date, so they get by okay with limited social interaction.
A man can endure most anything as long as he knows it will end eventually, and he has something to occupy himself.
And even then, I'm not certain the emphasis on socialness is all that it seems to be. There is a persistent myth that all humans require social interaction, but they never differentiate it from sensory deprivation, so it is hard to say what exactly they are measuring. More than social interaction, people require novelty and new things to occupy their time. Several people are perfectly at ease with never seeing another face for years at a time. What is going to be hard is seeing the same face, especially locked up in a tin can hurtling through space.
Antarctic research stations usually sign on for 6 month stints. Several usually sign on again and again, so it's clear that the right tight-knit group is able to go long periods without much outside interaction. The data is already there. You just have to be smart enough to look for it.
"Basement-dwelling Introverts"
That's completely untrue.
I don't spend much time in the basement any more. I've become allergic to the mold down there.