NASA Is Already Studying What Sort of Person Is Best Suited For Mars (blastingnews.com)

MarkWhittington writes: The first crew to set forth to Mars are likely in Middle School or High School, but NASA is already delving into what criteria it should use to select the interplanetary explorers. That they should be physically fit and experts in their fields are a given. But the space agency is keen that the people who will set forth to Mars in 20 years or so should be of a particular psychological type. NASA has granted Johns Hopkins money to conduct a study into the problem.

Comments

Gonna go out on a limb here

[redmid17]

It's probably going to be an exceedingly intelligent, physically fit, mentally well-adjusted white man

You know like 90%+ of the astronauts they've ever picked. Optional: Actually having been in space, spent time on the ISS, or experienced crushing loneliness for months/years at a time

If loneliness were a pre-req, us slashdotters would cut to the front of the line!

Re:Gonna go out on a limb here

[TWX]

I'm betting that those that are good for the Navy's Submarine Service would also have a good chance. Being locked in one metal tube for months on-end versus being locked in another metal tube for months on-end, plus having an elevated amount of responsibility and the ever-present risk that an otherwise-small problem having drastic consequences.

Re:Gonna go out on a limb here

[PinkyGigglebrain]

while you have an excellent point about a submariner there is one very important thing that you, and a lot of other people overlook. The simple fact that someone in a sub, or even an isolation chamber, knows that fresh air and home are only a short distance away, a few hundred feet up or a hundred miles thataway. If something goes wrong in a simulation you can always just open the door.

The people who go to Mars are going to have to face a completely new condition, that of being totally alone in an environment so hostile it will kill you in seconds. I don't think we yet know how to test for a personality type that can handle that, we can make educated guesses but until someone actually goes to Mars we won't know for sure if the people we send have "the Right Stuff"

Re:Gonna go out on a limb here

[swb]

You have to get out of the submarine first before you get all that fresh air. You can't just open the door a few hundred feet below the surface.

And even if you get to the surface without suffering from the bends or drowning, you're now facing water temperatures of what -- 70F if you're lucky, and if you're not, much less than that. The same hypothermia that will kill you in space will kill you nearly as fast in the water.

Re:Gonna go out on a limb here

[bondsbw]

This may be why we need humans to go back to the moon first with plans for a long-term habitat. It largely has the same dangers, but there might be at least a chance of implementing an emergency rescue mission if something goes wrong. (It would still be harder than a rescue mission from the ISS but not nearly as difficult as from Mars.)

Re:Gonna go out on a limb here

[TWX]

Those are my thoughts too. Hell, it would be possible with a Lunar base to have both an Earth-based rescue vehicle on standby, waiting to be fueled similar to how ICBMs were/are kept on standby, and given the proximity and the Moon and the relatively small amount of fuel needed to reach it compared to Mars, it would probably be feasible to place emergency escape vehicles and fueling equipment on the Moon so that a lunar base could be evacuated quickly.

Re:Gonna go out on a limb here

[Anonymous Coward]

It's probably going to be an exceedingly intelligent, physically fit, mentally well-adjusted white man

I've been suggesting climbing Sherpas for a while, but people don't seem to realize I'm serious.
- They're preselected for requiring less oxygen than your average European, reducing the mass of the required life support systems
- They tend to be smaller than Americans of European descent, reducing the amount of supplies required
- Used to dealing with cold, hostile environments
- Probably plenty of smart ones available (assuming they're crazy enough to go to Mars).

If you start with people who think living at 18,000 feet is normal, you get an immediate savings on mission resources or large margin of safety for the same resources.

Re:Gonna go out on a limb here

[rtb61]

More logically a Moon Base, say a primarily a galactic and solar system observatory would also provide the best training environment and be part of the selection process for missions further afield. So serve a year or two on the moon before you can get selected for missions further afield to say Mars, the asteroid fields, various moons around the place and the first to reach a planet around another star (possibly by that stage we would have quite the burgeoning metropolis on the moon, the ultimate global higher education facility). Likely salary on the moon, zero (your individual contribution and a demonstration of a real commitment, some sort of quite supportive and comprehensive pension plan though).

Re:Gonna go out on a limb here

[donaldm]

Basally we as a potential space faring species have to crawl before we walk much less run. Our Moon is a destination where we can learn to crawl in relative safety, Unfortunately the Moon is is not romantic enough in the eyes of the media or our politicians where Mars is, so basically we are learning to run before we have a chance to learn to crawl, what can possibly go wrong?

Re: Gonna go out on a limb here

[bill_mcgonigle]

>NASA has a dirty little secret that they don't want to talk about -- landing people safely on Mars is hard and they still don't know how to do it

I remember President Bush talking in '89 about how NASA woud be landing astronauts on Mars c. 2011. NASA is inept, like all the other agencies.

Meanwhile, Musk is working on robots to turn Mars soil into concrete landing pads so the construction workers can start moving in on the VTOL rockets.

Construction workers who will probably be women operating robots. Hrm, Musk hasn't announced the mecha company yet.

Re:Gonna go out on a limb here

[rmdingler]

You're correct, of course...but we're judging life in space based on a infinitely small sample.

There will be bone loss, discomfort, and unpleasant adaptation. There will be deaths. People will sacrifice so we learn, but some will do better than others and pass those genes onto children who can do even better than that.

If we do not begin to spread human life off planet, this eggs in one basket policy is going to backfire.

Isn't it obvious?

[mykepredko]

Somebody who loves potatoes!

let me save you some time.

[nimbius]

1. Donald Trump: BRING HIM HOME.
2. Martin Schkreli: are we entirely sure martial air is toxic? this is for science damn you.
3. Justin Bieber: yes...but...can we sing in martian atmosphere...thats the real question.

Make sure to ask the important questions!

[scunc]

Question 1: Are you physically fit?
Question 2: Are you an expert in your field?
Question 3: Do you like potatoes?

---
That's one small potato for (a) man ...

Re:Make sure to ask the important questions!

[UnknownSoldier]

> Question 1: Are you physically fit?

Whelp, that rules out 99% of /. :-/

. /me ducks :)

Green Skinned and Short

[Crashmarik]

Large bulbous head, with antenna like growths optional but desired.

Re:The profile

[tnk1]

In all likelihood, you are responding to a joke. If you are experiencing some odd airflow over your head, that is the likely cause.

Definitely a job for a southern redneck

[Anon-Admin]

Dont mine long hours alone.
They love things that go fast.
Could use a simulated Deer hunt for entertainment.
Can fix anything with duck tape and some wire.
Will eat just about anything.
There real good at growing stuff.

What more could you ask for?

Just need to outfit the ship to look like a pickup and the habitat to look like a Winnebago. Maybe Offer a million $ to the first one to shoot a deer on mars. :p

Best Suited

[godel_56]

Expendable.

It's pretty simple. really

[mark-t]

The people that are best suited to go to mars are those who either explicitly have a death wish or else those who are simply too naive to realize that going there at the technology that we have right now is suicide. Heck, do you know how many people died just trying to sail halfway around the world to the Americas from Europe only a few centuries ago? And that was on a planet with a hospitable atmosphere!

The moon, at least, has more merit as a place to go to in that, at least theoretically, we can reach it from Earth in less time than it would take people who might get stranded there to starve to death.

Re:It's pretty simple. really

[Kjella]

The people that are best suited to go to mars are those who either explicitly have a death wish or else those who are simply too naive to realize that going there at the technology that we have right now is suicide. Heck, do you know how many people died just trying to sail halfway around the world to the Americas from Europe only a few centuries ago? And that was on a planet with a hospitable atmosphere!

We fairly reliably sent people to the moon with 1960s tech 6/7 times and saved Apollo 13, some 133/135 Shuttle missions were a success, we've operated a space station for 18 years, we got rovers on Mars operating over a decade... okay so space is not exactly like flying from London to New York yet, but we've certainly tamed it quite a bit. Sure, the mission is longer but most things that are critical happen during the launch/landing phase, we have a decade of on-site weather data and the Martian was a movie. And we're likely to have robots making a dry run testing the landing and establishing the habitat first, still considering the complexity I'd give it maybe 90-95% chance of success.

Certainly nothing to sneeze at but nine of out ten times you get an experience only one in a billion will have and the tenth time, well you'd likely be really dead really quick. To be honest, the risk of being in a parachuting or mountain climbing accident and ending up as a cripple is scarier than becoming a fireball, besides I'm not an adrenaline junkie. Going to Mars though, I'd sign up for that. Of course it helps that I don't have any commitments, I wouldn't do it if I had a wife and kids but there's plenty of us around. And shit, 70-75 years ago tens of millions were dying for war. Even if the mission is a wipe, that's like ten deaths for exploration and science? The horror.

Rockets

[slashping]

NASA should focus on rockets, not people. Let's first see a rocket that can make it to Mars surface, pick up a ton of rocks, and fly back to Earth. When you've shown you can do that, then you can start looking for people and doing silly tests.

The shortlist

[wonkey_monkey]

Matt Damon
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Taylor Kitsch

the obvious solution

[slashmydots]

100% Dungeons and Dragons players. The 30 days or whatever would fly by if they run a lvl 1-30 campaign. They'd probably actually be requesting an orbit around Mars while they finish the level 28 quest line when they get there. Time really does fly when you're playing tabletop D&D.

"...who can cope with stress and boredum"

[PJ6]

Please stop linking to sites that can't even use correct spelling in their titles.