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Isolated NASA Team Ends Year-Long Mars Simulation In Hawaii (bbc.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the BBC:
A team of six people have completed a Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they lived in near isolation for a year. Since August 29th, 2015, the group lived in close quarters in a dome, without fresh air, fresh food or privacy... Having survived their year in isolation, the crew members said they were confident a mission to Mars could succeed. "I can give you my personal impression which is that a mission to Mars in the close future is realistic," Cyprien Verseux, a crew member from France, told journalists. "I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome."
The team consisted of a French astro-biologist, a German physicist and four Americans -- a pilot, an architect, a journalist and a soil scientist... the six had to live with limited resources, wear a space-suit when outside the dome, and work to avoid personal conflicts. They each had a small sleeping cot and a desk inside their rooms. Provisions included powdered cheese and canned tuna.
The team consisted of a French astro-biologist, a German physicist and four Americans -- a pilot, an architect, a journalist and a soil scientist... the six had to live with limited resources, wear a space-suit when outside the dome, and work to avoid personal conflicts. They each had a small sleeping cot and a desk inside their rooms. Provisions included powdered cheese and canned tuna.
Was this really necessary? We've had people on ISS go on for almost a year, the Russians made a ground-based test lasting for a year an a half and if you want to go to even harder simulations of solitary missions, we've had many Slashdot members go on for years isolated in front of a screen (let's call it mars spaceship control center) without fresh water or fresh food (only carbonated sodas and reheated pizza)... right there in their mom's basement. And actually many of them were in a ground-braking 2-level simulation, as they were simulating a mission to mars through KSP at the same time!
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Now they need to try again underwater. Have to deal with pressurization issues of the living areas, a truly hostile environment outside, and of course the conscious realization on the part of the team that if things go wrong they go really wrong. Just adding in the additional stress of knowing there is a good possibility of dying if things go wrong could really change the psychological affects of the isolation and could cause real problems as more time is spent in isolation.
Of course, it should go without saying to make sure that, should this kind of study be done, make sure the team down there stays away from any perfectly spherical objects they might run across. That tends to lead to bad outcomes in underwater habitats.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Next Time pack along some surstrÃmming.
Same way they do in the park. Provided they have trench coats, that is.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yes, there was a 20 minute delay on communications with the outside world. I believe they were also only provided with whatever entertainment they brought along with them, no new stuff brought in.
Eat the rich.
So I am fully qualified for a mission to mars?
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Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
One of the participants said his reason for volunteering for the mission was the great opportunity to "act like an astronaut for a year." I think the motivation and psyche profile of dangerous-mission astronauts is likely to be very different.
Yes, there was a 20 minute delay on communications with the outside world. I believe they were also only provided with whatever entertainment they brought along with them, no new stuff brought in.
Not hard to imagine that NASA did that part properly. It's very simple: Nothing in, nothing out.
OTOH I wonder if they put a large source of ionizing radiation in the roof.
No sig today...
What they should have done was to inform them on day 355 that their mission was being unexpectedly extended for 26 additional months and gauge their reaction.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
They can quit on the real mission too. The airlock is RIGHT THERE. Just sayin'...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Nuclear submariners do this all the time. Why is it necessary for NASA to do these 'experiments?
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Plenty of historic reports to pick from, plenty examples of how sailors would (or wouldn't?) cope on such journeys. Never mind that in comparison to an ocean-going vessel, a 'habitat' on some remote island is a pretty controlled environment.
From https://snowballschanceonmars....
"Just to clarify, we don’t have cheese powder. To whoever said that we live on tuna and cheese powder we have freeze dried cheese that rehydrates into delicious real cheese. Not to mention our numerous homemade cheese and yogurt cultures (Haans, Phil, Geno) and sourdough starter (Bob). Yes, we have tuna, but it’s wild caught and comes in virgin olive oil. We also have FD chicken (my favorite!), ham, turkey, and many kinds of beef. There is an abundant supply of dehydrated/FD carrots, onions, tomatoes, peas, corn, celery, potato, berries, peaches (mine, mine, mine, mine), bananas, apples, and cherries. We eat the same foods as people who cook their meals and don’t eat takeout"
Whereas people are making valid points about the flaws in this experiment, I don't think anyone at NASA thinks that this is a perfect dress rehearsal. It's about baby steps.
You can bring in the real-life high paid astronauts, build expensive underwater, or Himalayan bases, give them less sense of security, etc later.
If you think this is the only experiment that will happen you're mistaken, they're going to run similar tests numerous times. This experiment was about watching just basic psychology- start with a few factors, add some more, see the differences. See what causes the breaking point that would lead to a failed mission and try to alleviate it.
Many people here are programmers. You don't write an entire program in its entirety and then test it. You build chunks and test them as you go along. This was step one.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Provisions included powdered cheese and canned tuna.
And the knowledge that if anything went wrong the "experiment" could be ended in a matter of minutes.
If you do the test with all the risks of the real mission you might just as well do the real mission.
The point of a test like this is to make sure that you didn't forget to pack something, not to do the real mission without accomplishing anything.
As part of the strict scientific nature of this rigorous experiment to get us closer to a manned mission to Mars, participants were limited to only ordering pizza no more than once a day, and only allowed to leave the facility when they couldn't find a sitter and on family movie night. They were also under strict orders to pretend the gravity was two-thirds lower.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It would be interesting to know if the guys were keto adapted at the end. Fats have more than twice the energy of carbs and carbs for the same volume and weight can be synthesized from protein. So sending proteins and fats only will reduce the volume and weight of food supplies quite a bit. Canned tuna if there was no sugar is actually just that, but powdered protein requires even less storage. I can't find any word on that; does anyone know?
They had other things too, though they were mostly kinda crappy because they had to be shelf-stable for at least a year without refrigeration, which translates to a lot of powdered and freeze dried foods (though they did grow some fresh vegetables to supplement). Here's a blog entry about the food from Cyprien Verseux's blog. The six legged reconstituted freeze dried turkey is both innovative and horrifying.
Part of the entertainment left for them was the movie "Capricorn one" and they were told that CGI renderings of the crew taking off for mars had been broadcast along with a "godspeed" message from the president.
Nullius in verba
I don't know why entertainment would have to be that limited. A mars mission is going to have a radio link. Even at that distance, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a connection peaking at 2Mbit/s under good conditions, and a manned ship could carry a larger receive antenna and more powerful transmitter. That's enough to send ebooks, audiobooks, music, and even TV programs and movies. They might have to wait a few days for the latest movies and TV though, as it would have to be a low-priority task when the transmitter isn't needed for more important things.
This was a psychological and operations test, so talking about the conditions of space actually misses the point.
The reality is that they aren't going to have to care about the gravity or the ionizing radiation. If they notice any radiation on their trip, it will either be dealt with by an operational task they could practice on Earth, or they will have sustained damage and be in serious danger.... and hopefully have an operations checklist to deal with the problem.
As for being in Hawaii, it's certainly not Mars, but again, conditions are irrelevant. They're not testing whether actual Mars procedures work, they're testing whether humans can deal with a regimented task load using certain roughly known requirements (like wearing space suits), and having twenty minute comms delays.
To go to Mars, there is a certain level of tech required, and a certain type of person required. Both need to be tested, and eventually the tech and people need to be tested in increasingly real conditions, and together, but by setting aside the requirements for complete fidelity to conditions, you can do the "people" research in parallel with the tech. Waiting until we have the tech to do the people testing is an inefficiently serial approach that does not need to be taken until a certain point.
It said it 'included' powdered cheese and canned tuna. It could of also had literally anything else.
They counted themselves lucky. The previous simulation included canned cheese and powered tuna.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Nothing at all like Mars: check.
Fails to be in any way convenient for researchers and "support" projects: check
Justifies a lot of people going to Hawaii paid for by the US taxpayer: check
Well, I guess that's clear enough.
-Styopa
> If you don't take a Hollywood shower,
Wet skin. Lather soap. Rinse.
If you really had to shower daily (which is nice in close quarters but not exactly required to sustain life), you could get by on maybe 30 seconds of water.
If you have a system to instantly recycle the shower water for the 'wet' part, you could use the entire 30 seconds for the 'rinse'.