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In Hawaii, a 6-Person Crew Begins a Year-Long Mars Isolation Experiment

Posted by timothy on from the hope-they-turn-it-into-a-potato-farm dept.

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.

2 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Because this will be unlike Biosphere 2 how? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They should have done it under water

    No, that is a terrible idea, because it would make it even more obvious that they aren't doing anything new, and are just repeating what crews on nuclear submarines do on a routine basis.

  2. Ultimately Invalid by jklovanc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.