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In Hawaii, a 6-Person Crew Begins a Year-Long Mars Isolation Experiment
The BBC reports that six volunteers have begun a planned year-long stint "without fresh air, fresh food or privacy" in a NASA simulation of what life might be like for a group of Mars colonists. The volunteers are to spend the next 12 months in the dome (11 meters in diameter, 6 meters high), except for space-suited out-of-dome excursions, where they will eat space-style meals, sleep on tiny cots, and keep up a science schedule. The current mission is the fourth (and longest yet) from the Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation; you can read more about this mission's crew here.
Is the bathroom separate? Or is it that they all have to be in the same room when one of them is pissing, shitting, diarrheaing, or fondling one's own junk?
Wouldn't it be better just to put the crew into a medically induced coma for a year or so instead? Lower metabolisms, less calories and air required and no mental problems to deal with.
Because this will be unlike Biosphere 2 how?
http://wunc.org/post/what-less...
They should have done it under water, if they insisted on Hawaii instead of Antarctica, which would have been a better choice (or at altitude on K2 or Everest, as long as it was a non-permanent installation). There's too much temptation to cheat, there's no real danger, and we already know that curing concrete will eat all your CO2 if you are stupid and don't seal it.
The only good choice fora Hawaii location other than "under water" would be "Inside a large SO2 cloud near a volcano, so that breathing the external atmosphere would get you dead".
These guys managed it OK
Why don't they just look at the stats of prison inmates? They are holed up for years at a time in a 6x8 cell. Sure they get out to eat and go outside so can an astronaut they can do space walks and we can build nice big cells for them to.play around in. Those huge blowup building they could make.
Jack of all trades,master of none
What can they hope to learn from this that they haven't/can't learn from the ISS? Scott Kelly is currently spending a year in space on the ISS, and many astronauts spend months together up there. So what's being tested in the ground experiment? Internet deprivation and delayed contact with control?
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As I look upon the front page today, I fail to see a single story above 200 comments. Many of the stories have 30 or fewer comments. There are two that have been up for hours that have only 11 and 12 comments!
I've been visiting this site for many, many years. I've seen its ups, and I've seen its downs. But I don't remember it ever being as slow and quiet as it has been lately.
To see if it was always this slow on Saturdays, I went back to the 27th of August, 2005, which was the closest Saturday 10 years ago from today.
The difference is like night and day! Back then, in 2005, there was only one story on the front page that had less than 100 comments, and it still managed to have 65! All of the rest were well over 100 comments. Some were even above 200 and one was almost at 400 comments.
I don't think we should play blame games. At this point, it doesn't matter who is responsible for there being so few comments here. What we need to do is investigate fixing the situation. I have some solutions.
The first thing that needs to go are the comment limits. We should be able to post as many times as we wish, with at most a minute delay between comments. It isn't 2005 any longer, clearly! Back then it made sense to limit the number of comments people could post, because there were so many people posting comments, and some order had to be maintained. But now it's completely the opposite situation. There are too few people posting comments, and artificially hindering them is harmful, not helpful.
The second thing that needs to go is the moderation. By that I mean all comments should be shown by default. When we're dealing with less than 100 comments, it makes sense just to show them all, even those from ACs, and even ones that got downmodded. If they aren't all shown by default, then we end up with situations like this story from today, where there are 26 comments posted, but only 1 is visible by default! It's not even a particularly good comment, either.
We heard about the rumors that Slashdot will be sold yet again. So the sensible thing to do would be to try to raise the value of this site prior to such a sale. Getting rid of the archaic limitations that made sense in 2005, but not in 2015, would be a superb start! Make it easy for us to comment here. Make it easy for discussion to arise. Discussion is what attracts people these days. Imposing posting limits after only a couple of comments just drives people away, and that's exactly what Slashdot of today does not need!
With government cash.
so not at all reality.
I bet they were told it was only going to be a 'three hour tour'.
Ever been deployed and stuck in a SCIF?
How r ya?
They're using my 3d printer / laser cutter combo tool. Yay!
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
Isn't this a neo-colonialist structure that angers the volcano gods? Given today's politics, actually putting the dome on Mars would have been easier.
Have gnu, will travel.
and now law so hopefully there are women with the crew. I they are all men, you're ass is toast.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
1991 is calling and wants it's gimmicky highly publicized scam back.
Polly shore was not available for comment
-weasel
except for space-suited out-of-dome excursions, where they will eat space-style meals
That's pretty rough, making them eat their meals in their space suits.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
It is somewhat feasible to figure out the air issues. Far more difficult is the issue of radiation since Mars has no radiation shield like earth's huge Van Allen radiation belt. The toxic Perchlorate soil will also be a challenge.
What a pointless waste of time and money. At least we look busy while trying our best NOT to go to Mars.
A journey outside the dome - which measures only 11 metres in diameter and is 6 metres tall - will require a spacesuit."
Sounds like winter in Vermont.
That sq-meterage of habitat is spacious at about 1,000 sq-ft for reference to a typical home.
Our house is 252 sq-ft for five people for a comparable. Smaller than usual but it gets us through the long Martin, er, I mean Vermont winters.
We spend much of each day in extravehicular activities in our space suites. We farm right through the cold northern mountain Vermont winters which would be much like them leaving their habitat and doing their daily work out on "Simulated Mars". Believe me, here on Vermont you dress up much like a space suit and you do not touch things with bare skin as the temperatures are routinely -25ÂF (-32ÂC) during the day and frequently dip to -40ÂF (-40ÂC)and that is all before the wind chill which drops it to -95ÂF (-71ÂC).
Simulating Mars might be more realistic on a Vermont mountain in some ways than in Hawaii although Hawaii might be more fun. South Pole could be good. Doing it while farming would make it even more realistic because you must go out and deal with the cold, the wind, the hostile environment and get real work done rather than just busy work in a simulation. You can die. Those who are dependent on you can die. Equipment really breaks down from the extreme weather. Bring two Tractors.
Onward to Mars! Pig Farmers in Space!
There are a couple of issues that invalidate these experiments.
1. The experiment participants know that if things go wrong they will not die. There is always the possibility of opening the door and going home. This will cause participants to take more risks and be more open to other people's ideas. If an idea goes horribly wrong in Hawaii no one dies. That is not the case on Mars.
2. Linked to that is the fact that they will be going home. Most people can deal with a bad situation for a defined period of time. Considering that there probably will be no return trip from Mars people will be less tolerant of issues. For most people the answer to "can I live with that for a few months" is yes. If the questions is "can I live with that for the rest of my life" the number of yeses is much smaller.
When every decision is life threatening and may be permanent there is much more stress than an experiment which can be ended at any time. Sorry but "do it wrong and we will die" causes much more stress than "do it wrong and we go home".
PS, Sure we could set up scenarios where the participants could die but then ethics get involved and no government would allow it.
As a straight guy I think I'd rather spend my time with this crew on a lunar expedition: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com...
A man spends the first half of his life accumulating stuff, the second trying to get rid of it all.
Plenty of people winter in Antarctica, in a similar operational environment.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
...where they will be seen walking to the nearest 7-11 or bar.
I hope they've got 3d printers. It's one of those things that provides fixes for a variety of problems. :)
These isolation experiments would still require some kind of 'McGyverMath'. Measures of dual usage of objects, ability to use things in ways not originally intended. But just printing the shapes you need can help a lot. That and a stash of TEC7, WD40 and a ball of wire
6 People – 1022 sqft (plus loft-type 2nd-level sleeping cells).
It appears that the 11-meter dome is only for the human habitation section.
But still It's gonna turn out Like Biosphere 2, no question.
this is most retarded story for sure op
juegos para pc
1. No place to jerk off ? lol.
2. 4 men and only 3 women... yeah that's gonna go well ! ;) = NOT... better practice orgies ! LOL.
I wonder if all communication with the outside world will have a simulated delay.
Hawaiian. Vacation. Ever!